Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Food Producers, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 1.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BRU:COFB), which rose 0.18% or 0.20 points to trade at 110.95 at the close. Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BRU:ABI) fell 0.13% or 0.15 points to end at 111.55 and Belgacom (BRU:BCOM) was down 0.17% or 0.06 points to 32.55 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BRU:GBLB), which lost 2.17% or 1.69 points to trade at 76.17 in late trade. Bekaert (D) (BRU:BEKB) declined 2.15% or 0.56 points to end at 25.70 and Elia (BRU:ELI) shed 2.02% or 0.805 points to 39.020.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 140 to 29 and 5 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.67% or 8.00 to $1205.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 3.92% or 1.93 to hit $51.14 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 4.70% or 2.65 to trade at $59.13 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.66% to 1.0898, while EUR/GBP fell 0.45% to 0.7338.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.42% at 97.48.