Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Basic Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.02% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI), which rose 1.77% or 1.95 points to trade at 112.10 at the close. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) added 1.19% or 1.04 points to end at 88.76 and Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) was up 0.66% or 0.34 points to 51.67 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB), which lost 3.49% or 4.10 points to trade at 113.50 in late trade. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) declined 1.38% or 0.39 points to end at 27.80 and KBC (BR:KBC) shed 1.22% or 0.595 points to 48.045.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 78 to 63 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.65% or 8.00 to $1234.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 3.13% or 1.30 to hit $40.20 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 2.62% or 1.15 to trade at $42.69 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.28% to 1.1297, while EUR/GBP fell 0.19% to 0.7944.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.34% at 94.62.