Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Industrials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 1.90%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were ING Groep NV (AS:ING), which rose 5.69% or 0.491 points to trade at 9.121 at the close. KBC (BR:KBC) added 5.19% or 2.065 points to end at 41.885 and Ageas (BR:AGES) was up 2.96% or 0.855 points to 29.770 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB), which lost 5.55% or 5.90 points to trade at 100.50 in late trade. Elia (BR:ELI) declined 1.80% or 0.890 points to end at 48.540 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) gained 0.04% or 0.01 points to 28.25.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 113 to 28 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.54% or 7.40 to $1354.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.29% or 0.13 to hit $45.27 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.47% or 0.22 to trade at $46.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.24% to 1.1037, while EUR/GBP fell 0.47% to 0.8528.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.15% at 96.47.