Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Pharma & Bio-technology, Software & Computers and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.97%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ackermans V.Haaren (BRU:ACKB), which rose 3.32% or 4.40 points to trade at 137.00 at the close. UCB (BRU:UCB) added 2.50% or 1.74 points to end at 71.28 and Umicore NV (BRU:UMI) was up 2.10% or 0.78 points to 37.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Delta Lloyd (AMS:DLL), which lost 2.32% or 0.28 points to trade at 11.81 in late trade. NV Bekaert SA (BRU:BEKB) declined 1.62% or 0.45 points to end at 27.09 and DIeteren SA (BRU:IETB) shed 0.06% or 0.020 points to 33.980.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 123 to 49 and 5 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.75% or 8.40 to $1115.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 2.54% or 1.10 to hit $42.20 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.49% or 0.75 to trade at $49.43 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.15% to 1.1141, while EUR/GBP fell 0.10% to 0.7139.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.19% at 96.46.