Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities, Basic Materials and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.57%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which rose 1.86% or 0.75 points to trade at 41.16 at the close. Meanwhile, Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) added 1.33% or 1.45 points to end at 110.85 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 1.33% or 0.30 points to 22.80 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which fell 5.68% or 3.07 points to trade at 51.00 at the close. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) declined 3.49% or 1.02 points to end at 28.32 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) was down 1.75% or 1.85 points to 103.70.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 61 to 49 and 12 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.10% or 1.25 to $1235.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.00% or 1.06 to hit $54.06 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 2.16% or 1.20 to trade at $56.83 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.12% to 1.0646, while EUR/GBP fell 0.11% to 0.8516.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 100.65.