Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 0.63%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were United Company Rusal Plc (MCX:RUAL), which rose 5.35% or 1.890 points to trade at 37.200 at the close. MMC Norilsk Nickel (MCX:GMKN) added 4.13% or 407.0 points to end at 10255.0 and FSK EES (MCX:FEES) was up 1.82% or 0.0043 points to 0.2403 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bashneft ANK ao (MCX:BANE), which lost 3.86% or 157.5 points to trade at 3919.0 in late trade. Ros Agro PLC (MCX:AGRODR) declined 2.57% or 22 points to end at 835 and NOVATEK (MCX:NVTK) shed 2.46% or 18.80 points to 746.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 110 to 105 and 24 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 0.53% to 22.530.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.94% or 11.35 to $1219.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $53.86 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.21% or 0.12 to trade at $56.92 a barrel.
USD/RUB was down 0.93% to 59.5701, while EUR/RUB fell 0.62% to 64.332.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.16% at 99.53.