Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities, Financials and Construction & Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 1.63%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Elia (BRU:ELI), which rose 0.66% or 0.255 points to trade at 38.970 at the close. DIeteren SA (BRU:IETB) fell 0.05% or 0.020 points to end at 37.570 and UCB (BRU:UCB) was down 0.17% or 0.12 points to 71.08 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BRU:BEKB), which lost 2.95% or 0.76 points to trade at 24.86 in late trade. Engie SA (PARIS:ENGIE) declined 2.91% or 0.45 points to end at 15.04 and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BRU:GBLB) shed 2.56% or 1.77 points to 67.28.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 105 to 45 and 3 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.34% or 3.80 to $1120.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.30% or 0.61 to hit $46.14 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.49% or 0.76 to trade at $49.92 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.18% to 1.1143, while EUR/GBP rose 0.52% to 0.7328.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.05% at 96.27.