Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Basic Materials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.30%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ageas (BR:AGES), which rose 5.08% or 1.655 points to trade at 34.260 at the close. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) added 2.52% or 0.94 points to end at 38.02 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 1.65% or 0.795 points to 49.110 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which lost 2.13% or 0.94 points to trade at 43.41 in late trade. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 1.71% or 0.23 points to end at 13.19 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) shed 1.62% or 1.42 points to 86.04.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 82 to 55 and 11 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.67% or 21.25 to $1253.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.66% or 0.32 to hit $47.87 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.76% or 0.37 to trade at $48.56 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.09% to 1.1206, while EUR/GBP fell 0.21% to 0.7668.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 95.26.