Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Pharma & Bio-technology, Healthcare and Food Producers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.96%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BRU:BEKB), which rose 6.25% or 1.56 points to trade at 26.60 at the close. UCB (BRU:UCB) added 5.16% or 3.46 points to end at 70.46 and DIeteren SA (BRU:IETB) was up 2.84% or 0.920 points to 33.290 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BRU:ABI), which lost 0.73% or 0.80 points to trade at 108.35 in late trade. Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BRU:GBLB) declined 0.16% or 0.12 points to end at 75.17 and bpost NV (BRU:BPOST) shed 0.12% or 0.03 points to 25.75.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 112 to 54 and 4 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.59% or 6.40 to $1095.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.77% or 0.86 to hit $47.66 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.28% or 0.69 to trade at $52.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.93% to 1.1035, while EUR/GBP rose 0.70% to 0.7057.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.66% at 96.97.