Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Goods, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 1.94%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were bpost NV (BR:BPOST), which rose 0.98% or 0.24 points to trade at 24.64 at the close. Elia (BR:ELI) added 0.71% or 0.320 points to end at 45.155 and Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) was down 0.03% or 0.010 points to 39.690 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI), which lost 4.00% or 4.50 points to trade at 108.10 in late trade. ING Groep NV (AS:ING) declined 3.69% or 0.410 points to end at 10.695 and UCB (BR:UCB) shed 3.26% or 2.20 points to 65.35.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 93 to 53 and 10 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 2.09% or 26.50 to $1292.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.85% or 0.39 to hit $45.64 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 1.32% or 0.63 to trade at $47.14 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.76% to 1.1438, while EUR/GBP rose 0.68% to 0.7824.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.62% at 93.15.