Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, Utilities and Banking sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.74%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were KBC (BR:KBC), which rose 2.59% or 1.710 points to trade at 67.810 at the close. Meanwhile, Ageas (BR:AGES) added 2.18% or 0.755 points to end at 35.430 and ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) was up 1.79% or 0.265 points to 15.040 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which fell 1.54% or 0.70 points to trade at 44.99 at the close. Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) declined 1.17% or 0.830 points to end at 70.210 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was down 0.88% or 0.19 points to 21.28.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 60 to 53 and 8 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.38% or 4.93 to $1292.57 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 4.38% or 2.11 to hit $46.08 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 3.49% or 1.75 to trade at $48.37 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.36% to 1.1237, while EUR/GBP fell 0.45% to 0.8695.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 96.78.