Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Services, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Aperam SA (AS:APAM), which rose 3.68% or 1.53 points to trade at 43.06 at the close. Umicore SA (BR:UMI) added 1.16% or 0.49 points to end at 42.89 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 1.15% or 0.76 points to 67.10 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 2.88% or 0.62 points to trade at 20.94 in late trade. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 2.27% or 0.59 points to end at 25.35 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) shed 1.97% or 1.05 points to 52.25.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 63 to 37 and 22 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.33% or 4.40 to $1353.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 2.01% or 1.34 to hit $67.86 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.72% or 1.23 to trade at $72.81 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.08% to 1.2380, while EUR/GBP rose 0.54% to 0.8706.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 89.32.