Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.67%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 2.75% or 1.330 points to trade at 49.745 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 2.02% or 0.56 points to end at 28.24 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 1.70% or 0.68 points to 40.71 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which lost 2.07% or 0.81 points to trade at 38.27 in late trade. KBC (BR:KBC) declined 0.47% or 0.190 points to end at 39.820 and Elia (BR:ELI) shed 0.47% or 0.235 points to 49.430.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 90 to 53 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.63% or 8.65 to $1358.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 3.25% or 1.54 to hit $45.89 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 3.22% or 1.57 to trade at $47.23 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.34% to 1.1061, while EUR/GBP fell 0.17% to 0.8569.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.21% at 96.33.