Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Goods, Financials and Basic Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.62%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 3.20% or 1.620 points to trade at 52.270 at the close. Meanwhile, Elia (BR:ELI) added 1.12% or 0.510 points to end at 46.000 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) was up 0.96% or 0.23 points to 24.27 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were ING Groep NV (AS:ING), which fell 1.81% or 0.200 points to trade at 10.840 at the close. Ageas (BR:AGES) declined 1.29% or 0.470 points to end at 35.900 and Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) was down 1.22% or 1.40 points to 113.10.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 79 to 69 and 13 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was up 2.40% or 29.15 to $1241.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.37% or 0.18 to hit $48.99 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.14% or 0.07 to trade at $49.97 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.61% to 1.1333, while EUR/GBP rose 0.92% to 0.7803.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.51% at 94.12.