Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 2.24% or 1.670 points to trade at 76.320 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 2.08% or 1.42 points to end at 69.60 and Proximus NV (BR:PROX) was up 0.50% or 0.14 points to 29.01 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ING Groep NV (AS:INGA), which lost 4.03% or 0.580 points to trade at 13.820 in late trade. Ageas (BR:AGES) declined 2.11% or 0.780 points to end at 36.160 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) shed 1.21% or 0.54 points to 44.27.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 79 to 31 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.20% or 2.55 to $1249.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.75% or 0.36 to hit $47.88 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.86% or 0.44 to trade at $50.52 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 1.0810, while EUR/GBP fell 0.02% to 0.8661.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 99.42.