Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Healthcare and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 1.94%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Delta Lloyd (AS:DLL), which rose 4.47% or 0.23 points to trade at 5.30 at the close. Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) added 0.08% or 0.10 points to end at 119.00 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) was down 0.06% or 0.06 points to 99.25 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which lost 3.71% or 1.54 points to trade at 40.01 in late trade. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) declined 3.52% or 2.84 points to end at 77.91 and UCB (BR:UCB) shed 3.48% or 2.57 points to 71.21.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 100 to 49 and 11 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 1.74% or 21.30 to $1243.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.66% or 0.21 to hit $32.08 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 2.74% or 0.91 to trade at $34.18 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 1.1018, while EUR/GBP rose 0.65% to 0.7912.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 97.42.