Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.57%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which rose 1.86% or 0.75 points to trade at 41.16 at the close. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) added 1.33% or 1.45 points to end at 110.85 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 1.33% or 0.30 points to 22.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which lost 5.68% or 3.07 points to trade at 51.00 in late trade. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) declined 3.49% or 1.02 points to end at 28.32 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) shed 1.75% or 1.85 points to 103.70.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 61 to 49 and 12 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.09% or 1.15 to $1235.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.98% or 1.05 to hit $54.05 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 2.14% or 1.19 to trade at $56.82 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.12% to 1.0646, while EUR/GBP fell 0.11% to 0.8516.
The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 100.66.