Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.62%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were UCB (BR:UCB), which rose 2.55% or 1.75 points to trade at 70.44 at the close. Meanwhile, Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) added 2.32% or 0.65 points to end at 28.72 and Proximus NV (BR:PROX) was up 1.69% or 0.47 points to 28.36 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ageas (BR:AGES), which fell 0.38% or 0.115 points to trade at 30.275 at the close. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 0.13% or 0.02 points to end at 15.06 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 0.15% or 0.04 points to 22.91.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 87 to 50 and 9 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.76% or 10.15 to $1320.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.74% or 0.78 to hit $43.97 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.71% or 0.79 to trade at $45.41 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.61% to 1.0959, while EUR/GBP rose 0.49% to 0.8374.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.65% at 97.57.