Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Basic Materials and Banking sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Proximus NV (BR:PROX), which rose 1.28% or 0.34 points to trade at 27.36 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 0.96% or 0.59 points to end at 61.74 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) was up 0.85% or 0.90 points to 107.25 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ING Groep NV (AS:INGA), which lost 1.48% or 0.200 points to trade at 13.325 in late trade. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) declined 1.01% or 0.40 points to end at 38.53 and KBC (BR:KBC) shed 0.81% or 0.480 points to 58.890.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 64 to 46 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 1.47% or 16.75 to $1157.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.70% or 0.38 to hit $53.68 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.19 to trade at $56.77 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.68% to 1.0486, while EUR/GBP rose 0.57% to 0.8571.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.52% at 102.70.