Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 1.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 4.64% or 1.93 points to trade at 43.44 at the close. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) added 2.39% or 1.96 points to end at 83.98 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 2.00% or 0.910 points to 46.405 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB), which lost 0.30% or 0.35 points to trade at 116.20 in late trade. Elia (BR:ELI) declined 0.29% or 0.130 points to end at 45.165 and Delhaize Group (BR:DELB) shed 0.28% or 0.26 points to 93.26.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 89 to 51 and 10 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.32% or 3.90 to $1241.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 6.23% or 2.32 to hit $39.58 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 6.01% or 2.37 to trade at $41.80 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.23% to 1.1404, while EUR/GBP fell 0.15% to 0.8083.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.28% at 94.24.