Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 2.53% or 1.670 points to trade at 67.720 at the close. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) added 1.39% or 1.65 points to end at 120.45 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was up 1.03% or 0.63 points to 61.65 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Aperam SA (AS:APAM), which lost 1.57% or 0.65 points to trade at 40.77 in late trade. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) declined 1.14% or 0.52 points to end at 45.08 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) shed 0.90% or 0.50 points to 54.87.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 62 to 42 and 15 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.30% or 3.63 to $1222.83 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 3.63% or 1.71 to hit $45.36 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 3.06% or 1.52 to trade at $48.09 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.13% to 1.1334, while EUR/GBP fell 0.15% to 0.8769.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 96.11.