Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Telecoms and Industrials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.20%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 3.31% or 1.71 points to trade at 53.38 at the close. Meanwhile, Proximus NV (BR:PROX) added 1.24% or 0.36 points to end at 29.46 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 1.15% or 0.82 points to 72.36 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were bpost NV (BR:BPOST), which fell 4.49% or 1.03 points to trade at 21.93 at the close. KBC (BR:KBC) declined 0.86% or 0.540 points to end at 61.970 and Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) was down 0.76% or 0.10 points to 13.00.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 62 to 50 and 12 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.48% or 6.05 to $1247.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.37% or 0.68 to hit $50.19 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.82% or 0.43 to trade at $52.97 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.36% to 1.0726, while EUR/GBP fell 0.89% to 0.8582.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.23% at 100.01.