Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.83%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were KBC (BR:KBC), which rose 4.78% or 2.065 points to trade at 45.230 at the close. ING Groep NV (AS:ING) added 2.60% or 0.248 points to end at 9.794 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was up 1.93% or 0.94 points to 49.69 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which lost 1.90% or 0.935 points to trade at 48.250 in late trade. Elia (BR:ELI) declined 1.29% or 0.630 points to end at 48.155 and Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) shed 1.17% or 1.35 points to 114.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 77 to 65 and 12 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 1.02% or 13.75 to $1329.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.74% or 0.78 to hit $45.53 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.90% or 0.88 to trade at $47.14 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.23% to 1.1115, while EUR/GBP fell 1.27% to 0.8337.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.26% at 96.11.