Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Technology, Financials and Pharma & Bio-technology sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 1.92%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Elia (BRU:ELI), which fell 0.38% or 0.155 points to trade at 40.810 at the close. Meanwhile, Bekaert (D) (BRU:BEKB) fell 0.77% or 0.20 points to end at 25.73 and GDF Suez (PARIS:GSZ) was down 0.99% or 0.19 points to 19.28 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were KBC (BRU:KBC), which fell 3.47% or 2.050 points to trade at 57.020 at the close. UCB (BRU:UCB) declined 2.80% or 1.99 points to end at 68.97 and bpost NV (BRU:BPOST) was down 2.69% or 0.72 points to 26.09.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 156 to 11 and 5 ended unchanged.
Gold for June delivery was up 0.28% or 3.40 to $1201.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.15% or 0.65 to hit $56.06 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $63.95 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.09% to 1.0771, while EUR/GBP rose 0.15% to 0.7217.
The US Dollar Index was unchanged 0.00% at 97.88.