Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Financials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 1.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 2.99% or 1.455 points to trade at 50.050 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 2.61% or 0.81 points to end at 31.70 and Ageas (BR:AGES) was up 2.47% or 0.730 points to 30.225 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which lost 0.47% or 0.19 points to trade at 39.97 in late trade. Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) declined 0.09% or 0.04 points to end at 49.53 and Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) gained 0.36% or 0.40 points to 112.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 106 to 39 and 6 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 1.67% or 22.85 to $1344.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.95% or 0.40 to hit $41.53 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.99% or 0.44 to trade at $43.85 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.46% to 1.1079, while EUR/GBP fell 0.13% to 0.8480.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.53% at 96.26.