Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Financials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Aperam SA (AS:APAM), which rose 3.32% or 1.54 points to trade at 47.90 at the close. Telenet Group (BR:TNET) added 2.91% or 1.75 points to end at 61.95 and Sofina (BR:SOF) was up 1.30% or 1.80 points to 140.40 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 4.64% or 1.16 points to trade at 23.82 in late trade. Umicore SA (BR:UMI) declined 1.49% or 0.64 points to end at 42.36 and ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) shed 1.48% or 0.238 points to 15.830.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 68 to 45 and 15 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.35% or 4.70 to $1340.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $64.48 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.07 to trade at $68.59 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.25% to 1.2434, while EUR/GBP fell 0.10% to 0.8757.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 88.86.