Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Industrials and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 1.92% or 1.13 points to trade at 60.09 at the close. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) added 1.47% or 0.47 points to end at 32.47 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 1.34% or 0.79 points to 59.79 in late trade.
Biggest losers included KBC (BR:KBC), which lost 1.07% or 0.720 points to trade at 66.260 in late trade. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) declined 0.98% or 0.46 points to end at 45.78 and Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) shed 0.44% or 0.06 points to 13.53.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 79 to 36 and 11 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.64% or 8.10 to $1263.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 1.49% or 0.72 to hit $49.04 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 1.12% or 0.57 to trade at $51.33 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.25% to 1.1216, while EUR/GBP fell 0.26% to 0.8701.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 97.10.