Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Financials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which rose 6.28% or 2.77 points to trade at 46.98 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 0.88% or 0.27 points to end at 30.50 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 0.61% or 0.14 points to 22.27 in late trade.
Biggest losers included KBC (BR:KBC), which lost 2.10% or 1.290 points to trade at 60.050 in late trade. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 1.13% or 0.15 points to end at 13.16 and ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) shed 0.68% or 0.095 points to 13.810.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 54 to 51 and 15 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.72% or 9.25 to $1287.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.30% or 0.16 to hit $52.95 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.45% or 0.25 to trade at $55.61 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.32% to 1.0631, while EUR/GBP fell 0.21% to 0.8489.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 100.35.