Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Financials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were ING Groep NV (AS:INGA), which rose 1.43% or 0.195 points to trade at 13.810 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 1.21% or 0.34 points to end at 28.54 and Ageas (BR:AGES) was up 1.05% or 0.415 points to 39.825 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which lost 1.39% or 0.75 points to trade at 53.13 in late trade. Telenet Group (BR:TNET) declined 0.48% or 0.24 points to end at 49.82 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) shed 0.36% or 0.40 points to 109.25.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 66 to 46 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.14% or 1.65 to $1221.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.47% or 0.25 to hit $53.79 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.50% or 0.28 to trade at $56.84 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.26% to 1.0787, while EUR/GBP rose 0.35% to 0.8617.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 99.60.