Investing.com – Russia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Power, Telecoms and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX gained 0.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were MTS (MCX:MTSS), which rose 2.00% or 4.80 points to trade at 244.30 at the close. Magnit (MCX:MGNT) added 1.90% or 175.0 points to end at 9400.0 and United Company Rusal Plc (MCX:RUAL) was up 1.82% or 0.420 points to 23.480 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Tatneft OAO Pref (MCX:TATN_p), which lost 2.13% or 3.50 points to trade at 160.90 in late trade. NLMK ao (MCX:NLMK) declined 1.94% or 1.82 points to end at 91.88 and Aeroflot (MCX:AFLT) shed 1.91% or 1.66 points to 85.20.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 147 to 78 and 14 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.90% to 27.350 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.91% or 12.05 to $1331.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.84% or 0.84 to hit $44.91 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.65% or 0.78 to trade at $46.39 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 0.82% to 64.3034, while EUR/RUB rose 0.70% to 70.804.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.13% at 97.03.