Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.50%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 3.60% or 2.860 points to trade at 82.340 at the close. Meanwhile, Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) added 2.59% or 1.29 points to end at 51.10 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was up 2.36% or 1.00 points to 43.44 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were bpost NV (BR:BPOST), which fell 1.06% or 0.14 points to trade at 13.06 at the close. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 0.76% or 0.16 points to end at 20.80 and Umicore SA (BR:UMI) was down 0.53% or 0.26 points to 48.74.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 58 to 51 and 14 ended unchanged.
Shares in Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) rose to 52-week highs; rising 2.59% or 1.29 to 51.10.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.28% or 3.50 to $1255.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.22% or 0.89 to hit $73.83 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.26% or 0.20 to trade at $77.19 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.43% to 1.1740, while EUR/GBP rose 0.09% to 0.8852.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.37% at 93.78.