Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, Utilities and Basic Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 1.74%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Elia (BR:ELI), which rose 0.76% or 0.330 points to trade at 43.910 at the close. Meanwhile, bpost NV (BR:BPOST) fell 0.43% or 0.10 points to end at 24.43 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) was down 0.56% or 0.16 points to 28.49 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were UCB (BR:UCB), which fell 4.27% or 3.07 points to trade at 68.78 at the close. Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) declined 2.34% or 0.895 points to end at 37.340 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was down 2.32% or 1.00 points to 42.30.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 104 to 44 and 7 ended unchanged.
Gold for April delivery was down 0.28% or 3.40 to $1220.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.73% or 0.29 to hit $39.50 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 99.01% or 40.07 to trade at $0.40 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.10% to 1.1170, while EUR/GBP fell 0.48% to 0.7884.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.11% at 96.17.