Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.91%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which rose 1.60% or 0.77 points to trade at 48.51 at the close. Umicore NV (BR:UMI) added 1.15% or 0.67 points to end at 59.09 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 0.96% or 0.73 points to 76.49 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Aperam SA (AS:APAM), which lost 4.61% or 2.13 points to trade at 44.06 in late trade. KBC (BR:KBC) declined 3.07% or 2.100 points to end at 66.400 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) shed 2.79% or 0.93 points to 32.19.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 55 to 54 and 16 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.41% or 4.94 to $1223.84 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.39% or 0.66 to hit $47.99 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.35% or 0.68 to trade at $50.90 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.01% to 1.0866, while EUR/GBP rose 0.50% to 0.8441.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 99.53.