Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms, Financials and Basic Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 1.46%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which rose 0.22% or 0.09 points to trade at 39.08 at the close. Meanwhile, UCB (BR:UCB) fell 0.18% or 0.12 points to end at 66.59 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was down 0.20% or 0.10 points to 46.62 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were KBC (BR:KBC), which fell 3.59% or 1.490 points to trade at 40.010 at the close. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 3.19% or 0.89 points to end at 27.00 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was down 2.84% or 1.17 points to 40.03.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 123 to 18 and 6 ended unchanged.
Shares in KBC (BR:KBC) fell to 52-week lows; down 3.59% or 1.490 to 40.010.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.59% or 8.05 to $1366.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.94% or 0.44 to hit $47.04 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.67% or 0.32 to trade at $48.28 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.14% to 1.1091, while EUR/GBP rose 0.67% to 0.8561.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 96.19.