Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Beverage, Pharma & Bio-technology and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which rose 0.76% or 0.21 points to trade at 28.54 at the close. Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) added 0.72% or 0.71 points to end at 98.96 and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BR:GBLB) was up 0.29% or 0.23 points to 79.03 in late trade.
Biggest losers included UCB (BR:UCB), which lost 1.11% or 0.95 points to trade at 84.60 in late trade. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 0.80% or 0.24 points to end at 29.89 and Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) shed 0.77% or 0.90 points to 115.80.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 97 to 63 and 11 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.74% or 7.90 to $1060.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 3.04% or 1.15 to hit $36.72 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 2.82% or 1.06 to trade at $36.73 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.15% to 1.0907, while EUR/GBP fell 0.24% to 0.7355.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.23% at 98.45.