(Updates with full report)

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - Shares closed higher, supported by Wall Street gains, with heavyweight financials Dexia and Fortis among the leading blue-chips.

At the close, the Bel 20 was up 24.92 points or 0.57 pct at 4,363.82.

Dexia was up 0.68 eur or 3.17 pct at 22.11 eur. Peer Fortis was up 0.48 eur or 2.31 pct at 21.22 eur and KBC Group was up 0.45 eur or 0.46 pct at 97.95 eur.

KBC said it has expanded the retail banking services of Absolut, the Russian bank in which it bought a 95.0 pct stake last April for 761 mln eur.

Royal Bank of Scotland said the US stock market regulator has cleared it to issue its own shares as payment to US-based investors in ABN Amro should its joint offer for the Dutch bank succeed. I

In a statement, RBS said the Securities and Exchange Commission's move marked 'a significant step' towards the satisfaction of the conditions applying to its offer, launched jointly with Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano and Fortis.

Agfa-Gevaert was up 0.35 eur or 2.57 pct at 13.98 eur. UBS upgraded its stance on the imaging technology group to 'neutral' from 'sell,' while cutting its target price to 14.0 eur a share from 15.0.

In a note to clients, the broker said it the upgrade was the result of the recent weakness in the share price.

Omega Pharma was up 1.28 eur or 2.08 pct at 172.52 eur. The healthcare group said it has closed the initial public offering on its professional healthcare unit Arseus.

The group said the number of shares subscribed to since the start of the offer period 'substantially exceeded' the number of shares offered.

The company said it will publish the offer price this Friday, Oct 5. The public offering included a total of up to 17,500,000 existing shares (out of a total of 25,000,000 existing shares) and of up to 6,000,000 new shares.

UCB was up 0.21 eur or 0.51 pct at 41.46 eur. Analysts predicted lower sales for the pharmaceutical group's new Xyzal allergy drug -- launched today -- than its Zyrtec drug, which loses its patent protection at the end of the year.

Supermarket group Delhaize was up 0.22 eur or 0.33 pct at 66.28 eur.

For the fallers, mobile telecoms group Mobistar was down 1.45 eur or 2.44 pct at 57.87 eur.

Brewer InBev was down 1.08 eur or 1.71 pct at 62.00 eur.

Utility Suez was down 0.07 eur or 0.17 pct at 41.69 eur.

Outside the Bel 20, D'Ieteren was down 6.78 eur or 2.22 pct at 299.20 eur, losing earlier gains on profit-taking. Car distribution and rental group posted figures for new car registrations in September showed strong year-on-year growth.

Belgian new car registrations were up 4.6 pct in September from a year earlier, with the total number of registrations rising to 36,611 compared to 34,989 a year earlier.

CMB was up 0.85 eur or 1.64 pct at 52.55 eur. The shipping group was upgraded to 'buy' vs 'sell', with its target raised to 60.0 eur from 37.0 at ING Securities.

simon.zekaria@thomson.com

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