Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Pharma & Bio-technology and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.76%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Proximus NV (BR:PROX), which rose 2.94% or 0.86 points to trade at 30.12 at the close. KBC (BR:KBC) added 1.85% or 1.010 points to end at 55.460 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 1.67% or 1.14 points to 69.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included bpost NV (BR:BPOST), which lost 1.13% or 0.24 points to trade at 21.53 in late trade. Umicore NV (BR:UMI) declined 0.99% or 0.37 points to end at 37.17 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) shed 0.68% or 0.65 points to 95.04.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 83 to 68 and 4 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.58% or 6.90 to $1180.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.75% or 0.35 to hit $46.73 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.39% or 0.20 to trade at $49.92 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.1363, while EUR/GBP fell 0.03% to 0.7360.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.27% at 94.71.