Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Goods, Financials and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.62%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 3.20% or 1.620 points to trade at 52.270 at the close. Elia (BR:ELI) added 1.12% or 0.510 points to end at 46.000 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 0.96% or 0.23 points to 24.27 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ING Groep NV (AS:ING), which lost 1.81% or 0.200 points to trade at 10.840 in late trade. Ageas (BR:AGES) declined 1.29% or 0.470 points to end at 35.900 and Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) shed 1.22% or 1.40 points to 113.10.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 79 to 69 and 13 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 2.40% or 29.05 to $1241.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.37% or 0.18 to hit $48.99 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.08 to trade at $49.96 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.62% to 1.1334, while EUR/GBP rose 0.92% to 0.7803.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.51% at 94.12.