Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Technology and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 1.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were KBC (BR:KBC), which rose 4.58% or 2.170 points to trade at 49.500 at the close. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) added 4.27% or 1.61 points to end at 39.34 and ING Groep NV (AS:ING) was up 3.05% or 0.295 points to 9.982 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI), which lost 0.86% or 0.95 points to trade at 110.00 in late trade. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 0.28% or 0.07 points to end at 26.86 and Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) shed 0.24% or 0.110 points to 45.090.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 111 to 35 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.59% or 7.65 to $1290.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 2.90% or 1.34 to hit $47.55 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 3.20% or 1.51 to trade at $48.70 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.39% to 1.1270, while EUR/GBP fell 0.46% to 0.7868.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.42% at 94.37.