Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.32% to hit a new 52-week high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 2.53% or 2.090 points to trade at 84.600 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 1.50% or 0.45 points to end at 30.16 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 1.21% or 0.87 points to 72.72 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which lost 1.17% or 0.62 points to trade at 52.30 in late trade. Telenet Group (BR:TNET) declined 0.78% or 0.44 points to end at 55.64 and Aperam (AS:APAM) shed 0.61% or 0.28 points to 46.30.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 63 to 47 and 15 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.41% or 5.15 to $1253.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.08% or 0.55 to hit $51.70 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.01% or 0.55 to trade at $54.91 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.08% to 1.0655, while EUR/GBP fell 0.04% to 0.8539.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 100.54.