Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ageas (BR:AGES), which rose 5.02% or 1.550 points to trade at 32.400 at the close. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) added 1.20% or 0.28 points to end at 23.66 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 0.82% or 0.390 points to 48.200 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which lost 3.11% or 1.25 points to trade at 38.97 in late trade. Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) declined 2.30% or 1.130 points to end at 47.970 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) shed 1.56% or 0.49 points to 31.32.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 89 to 49 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.40% or 5.35 to $1352.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.61% or 0.69 to hit $42.08 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.40% or 0.63 to trade at $44.35 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.53% to 1.1174, while EUR/GBP rose 0.46% to 0.8590.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.48% at 95.60.