Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Manufacturing sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX lost 0.77%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were NLMK ao (MCX:NLMK), which rose 3.50% or 2.92 points to trade at 86.28 at the close. Severstal - ao (MCX:CHMF) added 3.22% or 22.90 points to end at 734.90 and FSK EES (MCX:FEES) was up 2.66% or 0.0022 points to 0.0848 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Uralkaliy (MCX:URKA), which lost 3.62% or 6.15 points to trade at 163.95 in late trade. VTB (MCX:VTBR) declined 2.84% or 0.0022 points to end at 0.0745 and MMC Norilsk Nickel (MCX:GMKN) shed 2.76% or 240.0 points to 8460.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 136 to 90 and 19 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 8.57% to 36.700.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.55% or 19.20 to $1216.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 3.78% or 1.45 to hit $36.89 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 3.99% or 1.61 to trade at $38.72 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 0.99% to 67.6956, while EUR/RUB rose 1.30% to 77.175.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 94.61.