Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Technology and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.50%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BR:GBLB), which rose 2.03% or 1.73 points to trade at 86.76 at the close. Umicore NV (BR:UMI) added 2.01% or 1.23 points to end at 62.54 and Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) was up 1.84% or 2.70 points to 149.40 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sofina (BR:SOF), which lost 3.78% or 4.90 points to trade at 124.80 in late trade. Aperam SA (AS:APAM) declined 2.00% or 0.80 points to end at 39.28 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) shed 1.48% or 0.86 points to 57.23.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 71 to 45 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.16% or 2.00 to $1256.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.63% or 0.28 to hit $44.74 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.81% or 0.38 to trade at $47.30 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.38% to 1.1188, while EUR/GBP rose 0.17% to 0.8751.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.32% at 97.19.