Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Industrials and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 1.14% or 0.840 points to trade at 74.570 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 1.04% or 0.73 points to end at 70.70 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 0.81% or 0.18 points to 22.99 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 1.61% or 0.50 points to trade at 30.60 in late trade. Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV (AS:AD) declined 0.88% or 0.18 points to end at 20.24 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) shed 0.34% or 0.15 points to 45.06.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 65 to 42 and 14 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.23% or 2.75 to $1199.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.47% or 0.70 to hit $48.42 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.18% or 0.60 to trade at $51.52 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.0636, while EUR/GBP fell 0.21% to 0.8708.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.29% at 101.33.