Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 1.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 3.78% or 1.61 points to trade at 44.37 at the close. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) added 3.36% or 1.17 points to end at 35.95 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) was up 3.21% or 2.79 points to 89.66 in late trade.
Biggest losers included UCB (BR:UCB), which lost 1.34% or 0.92 points to trade at 67.75 in late trade. Elia (BR:ELI) declined 0.16% or 0.070 points to end at 43.895 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) shed 0.09% or 0.04 points to 45.26.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 107 to 39 and 7 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.69% or 8.50 to $1229.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.23% or 0.47 to hit $38.75 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.41% or 0.56 to trade at $40.41 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.25% to 1.1322, while EUR/GBP rose 0.17% to 0.7873.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.30% at 94.88.