Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 3.49% or 2.720 points to trade at 80.600 at the close. Umicore SA (BR:UMI) added 2.93% or 1.17 points to end at 40.87 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) was up 1.08% or 0.30 points to 28.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included UCB (BR:UCB), which lost 0.96% or 0.64 points to trade at 66.24 in late trade. Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) declined 0.23% or 0.10 points to end at 43.33 and Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) gained 0.14% or 0.20 points to 145.60.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 80 to 31 and 12 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.14% or 1.90 to $1318.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.82% or 1.10 to hit $61.47 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.58% or 1.05 to trade at $67.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.22% to 1.2031, while EUR/GBP rose 0.26% to 0.8896.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 91.78.