Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Industrials and Basic Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 1.31%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were ING Groep NV (AS:ING), which rose 3.68% or 0.390 points to trade at 10.975 at the close. Meanwhile, NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) added 2.64% or 1.05 points to end at 40.76 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 2.29% or 1.180 points to 52.600 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI), which fell 0.26% or 0.30 points to trade at 114.10 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) declined 0.08% or 0.05 points to end at 65.28 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 0.12% or 0.05 points to 40.98.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 99 to 44 and 7 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.31% or 3.95 to $1266.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.79% or 0.39 to hit $49.52 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.84% or 0.42 to trade at $50.30 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.58% to 1.1363, while EUR/GBP fell 0.03% to 0.7674.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.36% at 93.47.