Belgian shares finished the session in negative territory on Thursday, with losses concentrated in the Consumer Goods, Basic Materials and Technology sectors.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 lost 0.86%.
Top performers:
- Lotus Bakeries (EBR:LOTB) rose 1.32% or 160.00 points to trade at 12,300.00 at the close.
- Sofina (EBR:SOF) added 0.94% or 2.40 points to end at 256.60.
- Solvay SA (EBR:SOLB) gained 0.85% or 0.22 points to 26.06 in late trade.
Biggest decliners:
- Umicore SA (EBR:UMI) fell 3.99% or 0.92 points to trade at 22.12 at the close.
- D'Ieteren NV (EBR:IETB) declined 3.40% or 5.90 points to end at 167.40.
- Aperam SA (AS:APAM) was down 3.04% or 1.42 points to 45.26.
Market breadth on the Brussels Stock Exchange was skewed toward losers, with 65 stocks falling versus 24 advancing and 14 ending unchanged.
Commodities and currencies:
- Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.14% or 50.90 to $4,409.80 a troy ounce.
- Crude oil for delivery in October rose 5.77% or 5.54 to hit $101.59 a barrel.
- The November Brent oil contract rose 5.62% or 5.69 to trade at $106.90 a barrel.
On the currency front, EUR/USD was essentially unchanged at a 0.03% move to 1.16, while EUR/GBP was unchanged 0.08% to 0.86. The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 98.94.
Thursday's session was characterized by sector-driven weakness in consumer and industrial-related names, even as energy prices moved sharply higher and gold softened. The combination of bearish breadth in Brussels and volatility in commodity markets framed the day's market action.