Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Technology and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 1.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which rose 1.23% or 0.30 points to trade at 24.64 at the close. Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) added 0.92% or 0.880 points to end at 96.180 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) was up 0.38% or 0.40 points to 106.90 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore SA (BR:UMI), which lost 4.07% or 1.73 points to trade at 40.76 in late trade. Aperam SA (AS:APAM) declined 2.81% or 1.33 points to end at 45.94 and UCB (BR:UCB) shed 2.43% or 1.68 points to 67.52.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 83 to 32 and 18 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.76% or 10.20 to $1337.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.97% or 0.64 to hit $65.16 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.62% or 1.13 to trade at $68.52 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.38% to 1.2466, while EUR/GBP rose 0.50% to 0.8814.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.53% at 88.95.