Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Services and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 2.46%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Delhaize Group (BRU:DELB), which rose 4.30% or 3.09 points to trade at 74.89 at the close. Meanwhile, KBC (BRU:KBC) added 3.79% or 2.170 points to end at 59.450 and Umicore NV (BRU:UMI) was up 3.14% or 1.27 points to 41.73 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Elia (BRU:ELI), which rose 0.38% or 0.140 points to trade at 36.660 at the close. Ackermans V.Haaren (BRU:ACKB) added 0.82% or 1.05 points to end at 129.10 and bpost NV (BRU:BPOST) was up 1.02% or 0.25 points to 24.86.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 133 to 35 and 5 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.23% or 2.70 to $1160.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.73% or 1.41 to hit $53.06 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 3.48% or 1.99 to trade at $59.03 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.45% to 1.1027, while EUR/GBP fell 0.53% to 0.7174.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.34% at 96.71.