Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Technology and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were UCB (BR:UCB), which rose 2.37% or 1.62 points to trade at 70.00 at the close. Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) added 2.17% or 1.940 points to end at 91.200 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) was up 2.01% or 0.52 points to 26.44 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore SA (BR:UMI), which lost 0.58% or 0.25 points to trade at 42.74 in late trade. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 0.15% or 0.04 points to end at 27.38 and Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) shed 0.10% or 0.01 points to 14.42.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 79 to 33 and 20 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.56% or 7.40 to $1334.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.06% or 0.68 to hit $63.27 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 1.05% or 0.73 to trade at $68.58 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.01% to 1.2237, while EUR/GBP rose 0.24% to 0.8826.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 90.34.