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Belgian shares off highs

BRUSSELS: Belgian shares pared early gains and were expected to consolidate in the next few days after a higher close in the past five consecutive sessions.

"It looks like we have started consolidating," said Gert De Mesure at Delen. He said the Bel-20 could slip in the red later today with a number of Belix baskets set to be sold. At 0835, the Bel-20 was up 0.16 percent at 1,736.89.

Shipper CMB, which surged 7.1 percent on Tuesday after a newspaper report highlighting the sharply higher value of its stake in Arethusa (Off-Shore) Ltd, was up 2.6 percent after earlier jumping 6.2 percent to 2,900.

Construction group Franki rose 2.8 percent to 738 francs after it announced Tuesday that group net loss narrowed to 138 million francs in 1995 from 458 million a year earlier.

Dollar-sensitive retailer Delhaize was up 0.8 percent at 1,488 francs in the aftermath of strong first-quarter results of its U.S. unit Food Lion.

Holding company Cobepa was the market leader in value and volume terms after two block trades of 50,000 shares and one of 25,000.-Reuter