Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Financials and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.62%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were UCB (BR:UCB), which rose 1.75% or 1.19 points to trade at 69.34 at the close. Meanwhile, Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) added 1.62% or 1.75 points to end at 109.65 and ING Groep NV (AS:ING) was up 1.54% or 0.151 points to 9.944 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which fell 1.90% or 0.96 points to trade at 49.94 at the close. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) declined 1.32% or 0.56 points to end at 41.58 and Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) was down 0.44% or 0.50 points to 112.95.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 55 to 43 and 8 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was down 1.04% or 13.85 to $1318.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.92% or 0.42 to hit $45.87 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.33% or 0.62 to trade at $47.28 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.14% to 1.1006, while EUR/GBP fell 0.64% to 0.8353.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 97.18.