Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Consumer Goods and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 0.94%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Befimmo-Sicafi (BR:BEFB), which rose 1.97% or 0.990 points to trade at 51.190 at the close. Meanwhile, bpost NV (BR:BPOST) added 1.75% or 0.39 points to end at 22.39 and Elia (BR:ELI) was up 1.62% or 0.715 points to 44.875 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were KBC (BR:KBC), which fell 8.02% or 3.985 points to trade at 45.715 at the close. Ageas (BR:AGES) declined 1.89% or 0.660 points to end at 34.340 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was down 1.70% or 0.67 points to 38.73.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 95 to 52 and 9 ended unchanged.
Gold for April delivery was up 0.83% or 10.10 to $1221.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.75% or 0.23 to hit $30.89 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.35% or 0.12 to trade at $34.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.20% to 1.1105, while EUR/GBP fell 0.42% to 0.7751.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.05% at 96.92.