Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, Consumer Services and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.85%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Engie SA (PA:ENGIE), which rose 1.43% or 0.17 points to trade at 11.74 at the close. Elia (BR:ELI) added 0.13% or 0.060 points to end at 47.635 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) was up 0.04% or 0.01 points to 28.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which lost 2.79% or 1.840 points to trade at 64.010 in late trade. UCB (BR:UCB) declined 2.53% or 1.67 points to end at 64.44 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) shed 1.87% or 0.97 points to 50.99.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 77 to 31 and 10 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.29% or 3.45 to $1200.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.65% or 0.86 to hit $53.11 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.94% or 1.07 to trade at $56.17 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.67% to 1.0654, while EUR/GBP rose 0.77% to 0.8735.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.60% at 101.09.