Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, Basic Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 1.06%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were ING Groep NV (AS:INGA), which rose 8.20% or 0.771 points to trade at 10.175 at the close. KBC (BR:KBC) added 2.92% or 1.290 points to end at 45.440 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was up 1.22% or 0.63 points to 52.17 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 1.42% or 0.45 points to trade at 30.91 in late trade. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) declined 1.16% or 0.27 points to end at 22.98 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) shed 0.86% or 0.95 points to 109.90.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 80 to 55 and 18 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.61% or 8.40 to $1364.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 3.97% or 1.57 to hit $41.08 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 3.68% or 1.54 to trade at $43.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.68% to 1.1148, while EUR/GBP fell 0.37% to 0.8373.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.52% at 95.51.