Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Beverage, Consumer Goods and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 2.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were KBC (BR:KBC), which rose 5.56% or 2.780 points to trade at 52.790 at the close. DIeteren SA (BR:IETB) added 3.72% or 1.080 points to end at 30.100 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) was up 3.66% or 1.74 points to 49.19 in late trade.
Biggest losers included UCB (BR:UCB), which lost 1.54% or 1.23 points to trade at 78.62 in late trade. Delta Lloyd (AS:DLL) added 0.15% or 0.01 points to end at 5.44 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) gained 0.66% or 0.50 points to 76.09.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 116 to 32 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.05% or 0.60 to $1116.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.17% or 0.06 to hit $33.27 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.84% or 0.64 to trade at $35.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 1.04% to 1.0826, while EUR/GBP rose 0.22% to 0.7635.
The US Dollar Index was up 1.14% at 99.74.