Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Pharma & Bio-technology and Beverage sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 1.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 3.47% or 1.16 points to trade at 34.42 at the close. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) added 1.70% or 1.26 points to end at 75.46 and NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) was up 1.44% or 0.41 points to 28.97 in late trade.
Biggest losers included UCB (BR:UCB), which lost 3.34% or 2.51 points to trade at 72.75 in late trade. Ageas (BR:AGES) declined 2.70% or 0.955 points to end at 34.445 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) shed 2.50% or 1.16 points to 44.98.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 100 to 45 and 12 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.04% or 0.50 to $1158.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.10% or 0.35 to hit $31.37 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.55% or 0.19 to trade at $34.27 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.58% to 1.1142, while EUR/GBP rose 0.21% to 0.7700.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.61% at 97.09.