Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Construction & Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 2.38%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Proximus NV (BRU:PROX), which rose 4.54% or 1.43 points to trade at 32.81 at the close. GDF Suez (PARIS:GSZ) added 3.44% or 0.57 points to end at 17.30 and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BRU:GBLB) was up 3.36% or 2.43 points to 74.79 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Telenet Group (BRU:TNET), which added 0.73% or 0.34 points to trade at 47.75 in late trade. Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BRU:COLR) added 1.36% or 0.56 points to end at 41.80 and UCB (BRU:UCB) gained 1.43% or 0.96 points to 67.98.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 142 to 22 and 6 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.41% or 4.70 to $1163.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.47% or 0.25 to hit $53.03 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.45% or 0.27 to trade at $58.88 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.14% to 1.1163, while EUR/GBP rose 0.37% to 0.7202.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.73% at 95.96.