Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Services and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 1.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 5.22% or 2.370 points to trade at 47.780 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 4.06% or 2.68 points to end at 68.61 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) was up 2.25% or 1.15 points to 52.29 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB), which lost 3.05% or 3.60 points to trade at 114.40 in late trade. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) declined 0.63% or 0.24 points to end at 37.77 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) gained 0.37% or 0.32 points to 86.36.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 106 to 42 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.24% or 3.05 to $1251.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.25% or 0.12 to hit $48.55 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.08 to trade at $48.73 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.10% to 1.1213, while EUR/GBP rose 0.80% to 0.7729.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.10% at 95.40.