Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Utilities and Consumer Goods sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 0.02%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 4.95% or 3.190 points to trade at 67.690 at the close. Meanwhile, Aperam SA (AS:APAM) added 1.09% or 0.47 points to end at 43.06 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 0.58% or 0.390 points to 67.660 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Engie SA (PA:ENGIE), which fell 1.10% or 0.15 points to trade at 13.45 at the close. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) declined 1.05% or 0.23 points to end at 21.59 and Umicore NV (BR:UMI) was down 0.96% or 0.64 points to 65.90.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 57 to 45 and 17 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.32% or 4.01 to $1246.01 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.42% or 0.20 to hit $47.12 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.28% or 0.14 to trade at $49.56 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.03% to 1.1633, while EUR/GBP rose 1.49% to 0.8973.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.61% at 94.06.