Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Utilities and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 4.95% or 3.190 points to trade at 67.690 at the close. Aperam SA (AS:APAM) added 1.09% or 0.47 points to end at 43.06 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 0.58% or 0.390 points to 67.660 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Engie SA (PA:ENGIE), which lost 1.10% or 0.15 points to trade at 13.45 in late trade. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) declined 1.05% or 0.23 points to end at 21.59 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) shed 0.96% or 0.64 points to 65.90.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 57 to 45 and 17 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.33% or 4.10 to $1246.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.42% or 0.20 to hit $47.12 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.26% or 0.13 to trade at $49.57 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.03% to 1.1633, while EUR/GBP rose 1.49% to 0.8973.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.61% at 94.06.