Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Power sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 0.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Severstal - ao (MCX:CHMF), which rose 4.13% or 24.60 points to trade at 620.30 at the close. Yandex NV (MCX:YNDX) added 2.86% or 27.00 points to end at 971.00 and PIK (MCX:PIKK) was up 2.78% or 5.40 points to 199.70 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ALROSA ao (MCX:ALRS), which lost 3.64% or 2.510 points to trade at 66.490 in late trade. Moskovskaya Birzha OAO (MCX:MOEX) declined 2.86% or 2.10 points to end at 71.40 and Pharmstandard JSC (MCX:PHST) shed 2.80% or 30.0 points to 1040.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 92 to 89 and 7 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 0.18% to 33.770.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.45% or 5.50 to $1223.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.59% or 0.96 to hit $59.54 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 1.14% or 0.77 to trade at $66.50 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 1.33% to 50.030, while EUR/RUB rose 1.76% to 56.991.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.15% at 93.59.