Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Consumer Goods and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 2.11% or 0.900 points to trade at 43.490 at the close. Umicore NV (BR:UMI) added 0.65% or 0.29 points to end at 44.80 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 0.17% or 0.11 points to 66.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which lost 4.62% or 1.74 points to trade at 35.80 in late trade. KBC (BR:KBC) declined 1.50% or 0.695 points to end at 45.655 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) shed 1.26% or 0.54 points to 42.16.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 77 to 64 and 7 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.79% or 10.05 to $1274.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 2.89% or 1.29 to hit $45.95 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 3.45% or 1.57 to trade at $47.09 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.56% to 1.1436, while EUR/GBP rose 0.37% to 0.7903.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.52% at 93.73.