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 fell 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were FSK EES (MCX:FEES), which rose 5.93% or 0.0104 points to trade at 0.1857 at the close. Rosseti ao (MCX:RSTI) added 4.69% or 0.0437 points to end at 0.9757 and PIK (MCX:PIKK) was up 3.62% or 10.10 points to 288.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Lukoil (MCX:LKOH), which lost 2.58% or 79.0 points to trade at 2982.0 in late trade. SG mechel (MCX:MTLR) declined 2.24% or 3.61 points to end at 157.52 and NOVATEK (MCX:NVTK) shed 2.07% or 15.10 points to 714.10.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 114 to 98 and 18 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.70% to 23.100.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.45% or 5.65 to $1248.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.45% or 0.72 to hit $50.23 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.84% or 0.44 to trade at $52.98 a barrel.
USD/RUB was down 0.96% to 56.0656, while EUR/RUB fell 1.17% to 60.213.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.23% at 100.01.