Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.67%.
The best performers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 4.96% or 2.740 points to trade at 57.960 at the close. Meanwhile, ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) added 2.43% or 0.325 points to end at 13.710 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 2.19% or 1.310 points to 61.020 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which fell 2.34% or 0.93 points to trade at 38.56 at the close. Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) declined 2.04% or 2.15 points to end at 103.05 and Elia (BR:ELI) was down 1.06% or 0.505 points to 47.280.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 59 to 57 and 8 ended unchanged.
Gold for February delivery was down 3.12% or 36.25 to $1127.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.57% or 0.29 to hit $50.75 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.18 to trade at $53.72 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 1.39% to 1.0388, while EUR/GBP fell 0.07% to 0.8375.
The US Dollar Index was up 1.31% at 103.37.