Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 1.57% or 1.020 points to trade at 65.850 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 1.07% or 0.70 points to end at 66.11 and Proximus NV (BR:PROX) was up 1.05% or 0.28 points to 27.38 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Engie SA (PA:ENGIE), which lost 2.98% or 0.35 points to trade at 11.57 in late trade. Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV (AS:AD) declined 1.01% or 0.20 points to end at 19.59 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) shed 0.79% or 0.36 points to 46.12.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 60 to 52 and 7 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.03% or 0.35 to $1185.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 2.99% or 1.52 to hit $52.34 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 3.04% or 1.63 to trade at $55.27 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.30% to 1.0524, while EUR/GBP fell 0.07% to 0.8662.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.22% at 102.23.