Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Services and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 2.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Delhaize Group (BRU:DELB), which rose 4.30% or 3.09 points to trade at 74.89 at the close. KBC (BRU:KBC) added 3.79% or 2.170 points to end at 59.450 and Umicore NV (BRU:UMI) was up 3.14% or 1.27 points to 41.73 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Elia (BRU:ELI), which added 0.38% or 0.140 points to trade at 36.660 in late trade. Ackermans V.Haaren (BRU:ACKB) added 0.82% or 1.05 points to end at 129.10 and bpost NV (BRU:BPOST) gained 1.02% or 0.25 points to 24.86.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 133 to 35 and 5 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.23% or 2.70 to $1160.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.73% or 1.41 to hit $53.06 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 3.50% or 2.00 to trade at $59.05 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.44% to 1.1028, while EUR/GBP fell 0.53% to 0.7174.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.34% at 96.71.