Investing.com – Belgium stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Healthcare and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 1.94%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Delta Lloyd (AS:DLL), which rose 4.47% or 0.23 points to trade at 5.30 at the close. Meanwhile, Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) added 0.08% or 0.10 points to end at 119.00 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) was down 0.06% or 0.06 points to 99.25 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which fell 3.71% or 1.54 points to trade at 40.01 at the close. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) declined 3.52% or 2.84 points to end at 77.91 and UCB (BR:UCB) was down 3.48% or 2.57 points to 71.21.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 100 to 49 and 11 ended unchanged.
Gold for April delivery was up 1.73% or 21.20 to $1243.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.75% or 0.24 to hit $32.11 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 2.86% or 0.95 to trade at $34.22 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 1.1018, while EUR/GBP rose 0.65% to 0.7912.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.03% at 97.43.