At 11.19 am, the Bel 20 was down 15.45 points or 0.52 pct at 2,951.84.
"The negative trend from the US is continuing. Stocks such as Ebay and Sony were down and this has had a negative effect on European markets," said a Petercam trader.
"Corporate news is not that good," the trader added.
InBev fell 0.53 eur or 1.91 pct to 27.21 eur.
The group posted disappointing fourth quarter beer volume sales last week, although traders said this was not likely to be the reason for the stock losses.
A trader said that US rival SAB Miller was possibly looking to make an acquisition bid for a Bavarian beer company and that this may affect the InBev market performance.
Shares in financial services group Dexia were down 0.17 eur or 0.99 pct to 17.04 eur, under pressure due to negative publicity about cases that have been brought against the company by disgruntled investors, analysts said.
Yesterday evening, RTBF television station featured Dexia in its report on fraudsters. The company is under investigation for allegedly helping clients of its Credit Communal unit evade Belgian tax.
This morning, another case concerning the bankruptcy of IT company Lernout & Hauspie emerged in the Belgian press.
Local dailies De Standaard and La Libre Belgique reported that Spaarverlies, which represented investors in the bankruptcy, are bringing charges against Dexia, as one of its units was responsible for the IT group's IPO.
Kurt De Baenst, Dexia analyst at Fortis, said: "These are really old files and should not have too much impact on the company but they can weigh a little on the stock price as the stories will again be in the newspapers for a while."
Financial peer Fortis fell 0.19 eur or 0.89 pct to 21.08 eur, while KBC was down 0.15 eur or 0.27 pct to 55.85 eur.
The European Commission yesterday gave a green light to Fortis' acquisition of some of Banco Comercial Portugues' insurance assets.
Among the gainers on the index, supermarket group Delhaize was up 0.45 eur or 0.81 pct to 55.90 eur.
Imaging technology company Barco was up 0.55 eur or 0.77 pct to 71.55 eur, while steel wire and cord manufacturer Bekaert was up 0.35 eur or 0.58 pct to 61 eur.
Electrabel was up 0.30 eur or 0.09 pct to 327.60 eur.
Newspaper reports this morning said the electricity utility wants to be active in the Dutch consumer market.
Pharmaceuticals group UCB was down 0.02 eur or 0.06 pct to 35.66 eur.
Yesterday, US sales of its anti-allergy drug, distributed by US pharma giant Pfizer, fell a less-than-expected 3 pct to 349 mln usd in the fourth quarter from 358 mln a year earlier.
Shares in Solvay were down 0.40 eur or 0.49 pct to 81.20 eur in line with the market, with investors seemingly unimpressed by news the chemicals and pharmaceutical group is looking to increase its plastic operations in China, traders said.
"There has been clearly a stated intention by the Solvay management to increase their exposure on the plastics side to market growth in China, and this would fit there very nicely," said Sven Smit, Solvay analyst at CAI Cheuvreux.
Explaining investors' lack of appetite for Solvay stock this morning, a Bank Corluy trader said: "It's strategically important, but not a drastic step".
Solvay said before the market open that it was looking to buy a majority stake in Yangzhou Yapp Automotive Plastic Parts Company Ltd together with its joint venture partner Inergy.
Yapp is a market-leading plastic fuel systems manufacturer with sales of 50 mln eur in 2004.
Outside the blue-chip index, shipping group CMB was down 0.50 eur or 2.42 pct to 20.20 eur.
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