Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Financials and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 1.09%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 2.99% or 1.455 points to trade at 50.050 at the close. Meanwhile, Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 2.61% or 0.81 points to end at 31.70 and Ageas (BR:AGES) was up 2.47% or 0.730 points to 30.225 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which fell 0.47% or 0.19 points to trade at 39.97 at the close. Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) declined 0.09% or 0.04 points to end at 49.53 and Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) was up 0.36% or 0.40 points to 112.00.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 106 to 39 and 6 ended unchanged.
Gold for December delivery was down 1.67% or 22.85 to $1344.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.98% or 0.41 to hit $41.52 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.02% or 0.45 to trade at $43.84 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.46% to 1.1079, while EUR/GBP fell 0.13% to 0.8480.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.53% at 96.26.