Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Technology and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.70%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 3.68% or 2.30 points to trade at 64.74 at the close. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) added 1.17% or 0.36 points to end at 31.23 and ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) was up 1.06% or 0.165 points to 15.745 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which lost 1.49% or 1.010 points to trade at 66.600 in late trade. Aperam SA (AS:APAM) declined 0.72% or 0.30 points to end at 41.55 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) shed 0.15% or 0.04 points to 30.91.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 67 to 45 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.11% or 1.37 to $1217.73 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.14% or 0.52 to hit $46.01 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.13% or 0.54 to trade at $48.28 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.23% to 1.1386, while EUR/GBP fell 0.55% to 0.8809.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 95.64.