Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Consumer Goods and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 1.35%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ageas (BR:AGES), which rose 4.50% or 1.465 points to trade at 34.025 at the close. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) added 2.04% or 0.82 points to end at 41.05 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 1.66% or 0.79 points to 48.14 in late trade.
Biggest losers included bpost NV (BR:BPOST), which lost 8.14% or 1.90 points to trade at 21.39 in late trade. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 7.65% or 0.97 points to end at 11.78 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) shed 4.09% or 1.97 points to 46.08.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 72 to 70 and 13 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.51% or 6.45 to $1267.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 1.39% or 0.63 to hit $44.64 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 1.16% or 0.54 to trade at $45.82 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.25% to 1.0883, while EUR/GBP fell 1.21% to 0.8688.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.18% at 98.84.