Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Utilities and Basic Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.51%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Argen-X (BR:ARGX), which rose 3.16% or 2.30 points to trade at 75.10 at the close. Meanwhile, Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) added 2.32% or 1.940 points to end at 85.440 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 2.22% or 1.52 points to 69.90 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR), which fell 4.78% or 2.48 points to trade at 49.40 at the close. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) declined 0.72% or 0.09 points to end at 12.41 and Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) was down 0.28% or 0.30 points to 108.20.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 60 to 47 and 22 ended unchanged.
Shares in bpost NV (BR:BPOST) fell to all time lows; losing 0.72% or 0.09 to 12.41.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.24% or 3.00 to $1247.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.15% or 0.81 to hit $69.57 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $73.42 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.10% to 1.1685, while EUR/GBP fell 0.06% to 0.8836.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 94.47.