Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms, Power and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX fell 1.68% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were NLMK ao (MCX:NLMK), which rose 6.39% or 6.94 points to trade at 115.50 at the close. SG mechel (MCX:MTLR) added 6.15% or 9.00 points to end at 155.35 and Unipro (MCX:UPRO) was up 3.71% or 0.0930 points to 2.5970 in late trade.
Biggest losers included GidroOGK-011D (MCX:HYDR), which lost 5.45% or 0.0450 points to trade at 0.7800 in late trade. Surgut-pref (MCX:SNGS_p) declined 4.97% or 1.475 points to end at 28.225 and FSK EES (MCX:FEES) shed 4.95% or 0.0086 points to 0.1641.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 135 to 75 and 19 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.39% to 25.570.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.44% or 5.51 to $1267.61 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 2.48% or 1.23 to hit $48.43 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.51% or 1.31 to trade at $50.93 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 0.31% to 56.7265, while EUR/RUB rose 0.76% to 63.868.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 96.97.