Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Industrials, Technology and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Aperam SA (AS:APAM), which rose 0.39% or 0.17 points to trade at 43.85 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 0.16% or 0.04 points to end at 27.75 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) was up 0.04% or 0.01 points to 42.79 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which lost 5.01% or 1.82 points to trade at 34.60 in late trade. Umicore SA (BR:UMI) declined 2.62% or 1.04 points to end at 38.72 and Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) shed 1.56% or 1.200 points to 75.870.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 85 to 41 and 6 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.38% or 4.80 to $1269.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.57% or 0.33 to hit $57.89 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.36 to trade at $64.16 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.32% to 1.1877, while EUR/GBP rose 0.19% to 0.8861.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 92.88.