Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Consumer Goods, Basic Materials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.77% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which rose 1.42% or 0.30 points to trade at 21.36 at the close. Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BR:GBLB) added 0.46% or 0.42 points to end at 91.18 and Ageas (BR:AGES) was up 0.16% or 0.070 points to 42.530 in late trade.
Biggest losers included bpost NV (BR:BPOST), which lost 3.53% or 0.67 points to trade at 18.31 in late trade. Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) declined 1.68% or 1.380 points to end at 80.740 and Umicore SA (BR:UMI) shed 1.67% or 0.75 points to 44.04.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 73 to 38 and 19 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.41% or 5.50 to $1355.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.65% or 0.43 to hit $65.45 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.47% or 0.33 to trade at $69.48 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.77% to 1.2447, while EUR/GBP rose 0.03% to 0.8745.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.53% at 88.63.