Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Financials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 4.38% or 3.290 points to trade at 78.480 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 1.54% or 1.00 points to end at 65.98 and NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) was up 1.30% or 0.46 points to 35.49 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Aperam SA (AS:APAM), which lost 3.69% or 1.61 points to trade at 42.00 in late trade. Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) declined 1.69% or 2.50 points to end at 145.20 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) shed 0.55% or 0.60 points to 109.25.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 62 to 57 and 10 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.61% or 7.70 to $1278.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.24% or 0.14 to hit $58.22 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.05 to trade at $64.95 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.24% to 1.1847, while EUR/GBP fell 0.15% to 0.8857.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 92.96.