Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Technology and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.14%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 1.80% or 1.100 points to trade at 62.200 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 1.00% or 0.63 points to end at 63.60 and Ageas (BR:AGES) was up 0.99% or 0.395 points to 40.395 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 0.92% or 0.26 points to trade at 27.48 in late trade. Umicore NV (BR:UMI) declined 0.88% or 0.46 points to end at 51.70 and Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) shed 0.78% or 0.09 points to 11.40.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 58 to 49 and 13 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.91% or 10.95 to $1186.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.18% or 1.15 to hit $53.90 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 2.32% or 1.28 to trade at $56.36 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.69% to 1.0677, while EUR/GBP fell 0.26% to 0.8484.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.66% at 100.57.