Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Technology and Utilities 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 Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA (BR:GBLB), which rose 2.03% or 1.73 points to trade at 86.76 at the close. Meanwhile, Umicore NV (BR:UMI) added 2.01% or 1.23 points to end at 62.54 and Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) was up 1.84% or 2.70 points to 149.40 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Sofina (BR:SOF), which fell 3.78% or 4.90 points to trade at 124.80 at the close. Aperam SA (AS:APAM) declined 2.00% or 0.80 points to end at 39.28 and Telenet Group (BR:TNET) was down 1.48% or 0.86 points to 57.23.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 71 to 45 and 8 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.16% or 2.02 to $1256.62 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.63% or 0.28 to hit $44.74 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.37 to trade at $47.29 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.38% to 1.1188, while EUR/GBP rose 0.17% to 0.8751.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.32% at 97.19.