Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Telecoms and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 1.31% or 0.72 points to trade at 55.74 at the close. Telenet Group (BR:TNET) added 1.29% or 0.62 points to end at 48.50 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) was up 0.92% or 0.95 points to 104.25 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 1.48% or 0.39 points to trade at 25.71 in late trade. ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) declined 1.20% or 0.155 points to end at 12.805 and Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) shed 1.12% or 0.13 points to 11.49.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 73 to 73 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 1.89% or 22.90 to $1188.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.19% or 0.09 to hit $48.12 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $49.16 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.66% to 1.0555, while EUR/GBP fell 0.85% to 0.8479.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.61% at 101.71.