Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Telecoms and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.72%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 4.64% or 1.730 points to trade at 38.980 at the close. Meanwhile, UCB (BR:UCB) added 3.48% or 2.37 points to end at 70.56 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) was up 1.77% or 0.52 points to 29.68 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Solvay SA (BR:SOLB), which fell 1.63% or 1.37 points to trade at 82.82 at the close. Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) declined 0.64% or 0.70 points to end at 108.30 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 0.08% or 0.02 points to 24.29.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 96 to 43 and 9 ended unchanged.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.29% or 3.60 to $1226.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 4.82% or 1.73 to hit $37.62 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 4.89% or 1.85 to trade at $39.72 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.1418, while EUR/GBP rose 0.36% to 0.8068.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.26% at 94.36.