Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Financials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were KBC (BR:KBC), which rose 2.52% or 1.360 points to trade at 55.310 at the close. Umicore NV (BR:UMI) added 1.94% or 1.06 points to end at 55.77 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 1.74% or 0.83 points to 48.81 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which lost 1.36% or 0.810 points to trade at 58.860 in late trade. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) declined 1.01% or 1.05 points to end at 103.10 and NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) shed 0.88% or 0.36 points to 40.46.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 82 to 60 and 16 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.19% or 2.45 to $1269.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.63% or 0.80 to hit $49.98 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.70% or 0.85 to trade at $50.83 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.15% to 1.0892, while EUR/GBP rose 0.49% to 0.8951.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.37% at 98.95.