Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 3.07% or 1.42 points to trade at 47.69 at the close. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) added 2.64% or 1.03 points to end at 39.99 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) was up 2.43% or 2.03 points to 85.41 in late trade.
Biggest losers included KBC (BR:KBC), which lost 0.96% or 0.420 points to trade at 43.500 in late trade. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 0.62% or 0.09 points to end at 14.42 and Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) shed 0.22% or 0.110 points to 49.345.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 102 to 39 and 6 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 1.38% or 18.25 to $1338.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $48.31 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $49.67 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.32% to 1.1140, while EUR/GBP rose 0.74% to 0.8396.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.25% at 95.71.