Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil and Gas, Mining and Power sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX fell 1.48% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were SG mechel (MCX:MTLR), which rose 2.63% or 2.05 points to trade at 80.05 at the close. Tatneft-3 (MCX:TATN) added 2.49% or 7.00 points to end at 288.45 and PIK (MCX:PIKK) was up 2.10% or 3.80 points to 184.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Rosseti ao (MCX:RSTI), which lost 4.84% or 0.0271 points to trade at 0.5332 in late trade. MMK (MCX:MAGN) declined 4.06% or 0.611 points to end at 14.455 and MegaFon OAO (MCX:MFON) shed 3.82% or 34.00 points to 857.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 104 to 82 and 9 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of options, was down 1.09% to 42.520 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 1.47% or 16.90 to $1168.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in May fell 3.22% or 1.50 to hit $45.15 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract fell 2.69% or 1.50 to trade at $54.41 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 1.09% to 60.100, while EUR/RUB fell 0.54% to 63.890.
The US Dollar Index was up 2.26% at 99.58.