Investing.com – Russia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Manufacturing sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX gained 0.94%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Bashneft ANK ao (MCX:BANE), which rose 5.41% or 121.5 points to trade at 2367.5 at the close. ANK Bashneft OAO Pref (MCX:BANE_p) added 3.07% or 58.0 points to end at 1947.0 and Sberbank (MCX:SBER) was up 2.79% or 2.69 points to 99.20 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Gruppa LSR PAO (MCX:LSRG), which lost 3.11% or 19.0 points to trade at 592.0 in late trade. ALROSA ao (MCX:ALRS) declined 2.75% or 1.950 points to end at 69.000 and Severstal - ao (MCX:CHMF) shed 2.70% or 17.90 points to 644.10.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 121 to 86 and 19 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.30% to 42.620.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.02% or 0.20 to $1208.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 6.54% or 1.90 to hit $30.94 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 7.55% or 2.43 to trade at $34.61 a barrel.
USD/RUB was down 3.58% to 75.0979, while EUR/RUB fell 3.46% to 83.792.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 96.81.