Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX lost 0.94%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Inter rao ees (MCX:IRAO), which rose 5.63% or 0.2185 points to trade at 4.0995 at the close. Polymetal International PLC (MCX:POLY) added 2.95% or 19.00 points to end at 662.50 and AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS) was up 1.96% or 0.450 points to 23.395 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Rosneft (MCX:ROSN), which lost 3.12% or 13.10 points to trade at 406.40 in late trade. Lukoil (MCX:LKOH) declined 2.67% or 95.5 points to end at 3479.5 and Sberbank (MCX:SBER) shed 2.32% or 4.17 points to 175.95.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 115 to 102 and 15 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was up 5.18% to 26.170.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.33% or 3.85 to $1165.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.51% or 0.79 to hit $53.12 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.44% or 0.80 to trade at $56.27 a barrel.
USD/RUB was down 0.70% to 60.4857, while EUR/RUB rose 0.12% to 63.330.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.60% at 102.62.