Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Technology and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 2.42% or 1.09 points to trade at 46.10 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 1.89% or 0.54 points to end at 29.18 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 1.72% or 1.13 points to 66.85 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which lost 1.02% or 0.520 points to trade at 50.650 in late trade. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 0.46% or 0.14 points to end at 29.34 and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BR:GBLB) shed 0.43% or 0.33 points to 75.98.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 84 to 59 and 11 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.02% or 0.25 to $1214.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.35% or 0.17 to hit $49.18 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.33 to trade at $50.05 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.33% to 1.1152, while EUR/GBP fell 0.37% to 0.7734.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.10% at 95.52.