Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.62%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were UCB (BR:UCB), which rose 2.55% or 1.75 points to trade at 70.44 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 2.32% or 0.65 points to end at 28.72 and Proximus NV (BR:PROX) was up 1.69% or 0.47 points to 28.36 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ageas (BR:AGES), which lost 0.38% or 0.115 points to trade at 30.275 in late trade. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 0.13% or 0.02 points to end at 15.06 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) gained 0.15% or 0.04 points to 22.91.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 87 to 50 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.73% or 9.75 to $1321.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.72% or 0.77 to hit $43.98 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.71% or 0.79 to trade at $45.41 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.61% to 1.0959, while EUR/GBP rose 0.49% to 0.8374.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.65% at 97.57.