Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Goods and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.49%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 1.68% or 1.560 points to trade at 94.340 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 1.34% or 0.94 points to end at 71.12 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 1.15% or 0.70 points to 61.55 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 2.08% or 0.54 points to trade at 25.38 in late trade. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 0.53% or 0.07 points to end at 13.99 and ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) shed 0.17% or 0.028 points to 16.230.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 74 to 39 and 20 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.76% or 10.30 to $1352.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.96% or 0.63 to hit $66.14 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.21% or 0.15 to trade at $70.57 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.23% to 1.2426, while EUR/GBP fell 0.09% to 0.8760.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 88.83.