Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, Utilities and Banking sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.74%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were KBC (BR:KBC), which rose 2.59% or 1.710 points to trade at 67.810 at the close. Ageas (BR:AGES) added 2.18% or 0.755 points to end at 35.430 and ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) was up 1.79% or 0.265 points to 15.040 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which lost 1.54% or 0.70 points to trade at 44.99 in late trade. Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) declined 1.17% or 0.830 points to end at 70.210 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) shed 0.88% or 0.19 points to 21.28.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 60 to 53 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.37% or 4.85 to $1292.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 4.38% or 2.11 to hit $46.08 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 3.49% or 1.75 to trade at $48.37 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.36% to 1.1237, while EUR/GBP fell 0.45% to 0.8695.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.30% at 96.79.