Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Construction & Materials, Beverage and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 2.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were DIeteren SA (BR:IETB), which rose 1.22% or 0.395 points to trade at 32.810 at the close. KBC (BR:KBC) added 0.43% or 0.240 points to end at 56.300 and Befimmo-Sicafi (BR:BEFBb) was down 0.59% or 0.330 points to 56.030 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Delta Lloyd (AS:DLL), which lost 10.65% or 0.67 points to trade at 5.66 in late trade. Delhaize Group (BR:DELB) declined 4.33% or 4.02 points to end at 88.87 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) shed 4.25% or 4.50 points to 101.30.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 119 to 42 and 6 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.46% or 4.80 to $1058.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 2.50% or 1.00 to hit $40.94 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 3.31% or 1.41 to trade at $43.90 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 2.89% to 1.0919, while EUR/GBP rose 1.85% to 0.7230.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.96% at 98.08.