Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Construction & Materials and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 2.38%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Proximus NV (BRU:PROX), which rose 4.54% or 1.43 points to trade at 32.81 at the close. Meanwhile, GDF Suez (PARIS:GSZ) added 3.44% or 0.57 points to end at 17.30 and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BRU:GBLB) was up 3.36% or 2.43 points to 74.79 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Telenet Group (BRU:TNET), which rose 0.73% or 0.34 points to trade at 47.75 at the close. Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BRU:COLR) added 1.36% or 0.56 points to end at 41.80 and UCB (BRU:UCB) was up 1.43% or 0.96 points to 67.98.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 142 to 22 and 6 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.43% or 5.00 to $1164.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.45% or 0.24 to hit $53.02 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.44% or 0.26 to trade at $58.87 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.15% to 1.1164, while EUR/GBP rose 0.38% to 0.7203.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.73% at 95.96.