Cautiously positive early on Thursday pending announcements from the ECB, the Bel 20 index dipped briefly before the bank announced a 0.75% interest rate hike, then rose again sharply, ending the day on 3,623.21 points (+1.29%), with 12 of its elements in the green.
Its rise was bolstered by heavyweights arGEN-X (391.80) and KBC (49.91), which climbed by 4.84% and 2.67% respectively, along with Ageas (40.06) and AB InBev (49.37), up 1.99% and 0.59% respectively.
D’Ieteren (155.30) also stood out, going up by 2.37%, while Galapagos (49.27) and UCB (70.46) progressed by 1.76% and 0.66% respectively, unlike Solvay (81.14), which yielded 0.44%.
Proximus (11.78) and Cofinimmo (98.60) were down by 3.28% and 1.60%, Elia (142.10) and Sofina (195.90) yielded 1.04% and 0.91% while Colruyt (30.37) lost 0.65% after moving up 11.6% the day before.
Bone Therapeutics (0.22) and IBA (16.02) fell by 8.7% and 5.4% respectively. Hyloris (14.40) soared by 11.6%. Biocartis (1.25) lost more than 3%, while Nyxoah (8.00), Onward Medical (4.87) and Mithra (7.12) gained.
SmartPhoto (28.80) fell by 6.8%. Telenet (13.37) and Orange Belgium (18.22) depreciated by 3.5% and 4.5% respectively, while Jensen (31.30) and Van de Velde (37, 00) appreciated, on the other hand, by 5.7% and 3.2%, and Barco (22.62) and CFE (9.82) by 2.4% and 2.9%.
Around 4:30 p.m., the euro was at $0.9970, as against $0.9988 in the morning and $0.9947 the day before.
The ounce of gold yielded $6.85, at $1,704.55, and bullion traded around €54,970, down €345.
