Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Financials, Basic Materials and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.45%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which rose 2.16% or 0.74 points to trade at 35.16 at the close. Meanwhile, ING Groep NV (AS:ING) added 2.07% or 0.210 points to end at 10.370 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was up 1.76% or 0.77 points to 44.20 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which fell 3.47% or 1.04 points to trade at 28.91 at the close. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) declined 1.09% or 0.27 points to end at 24.43 and Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) was down 1.00% or 0.390 points to 38.770.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 80 to 65 and 7 ended unchanged.
Gold for June delivery was up 1.23% or 15.30 to $1259.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 2.01% or 0.80 to hit $40.52 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 2.17% or 0.91 to trade at $42.85 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.07% to 1.1410, while EUR/GBP fell 0.80% to 0.8013.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.27% at 93.97.