Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, Telecoms and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 0.35%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which rose 2.18% or 0.52 points to trade at 24.34 at the close. Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) added 1.87% or 2.80 points to end at 152.90 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 0.65% or 0.40 points to 62.35 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB), which lost 1.75% or 1.90 points to trade at 106.50 in late trade. UCB (BR:UCB) declined 1.42% or 1.00 points to end at 69.20 and ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) shed 1.04% or 0.164 points to 15.666.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 62 to 48 and 19 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.19% or 2.60 to $1345.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.07% or 0.69 to hit $65.42 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.65% or 0.45 to trade at $69.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.62% to 1.2490, while EUR/GBP rose 0.21% to 0.8765.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.39% at 88.60.