Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Power and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX lost 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were ALROSA ao (MCX:ALRS), which rose 3.62% or 3.360 points to trade at 96.210 at the close. Inter rao ees (MCX:IRAO) added 1.72% or 0.0700 points to end at 4.1390 and Sberbank Rossii OAO Pref (MCX:SBER_p) was up 1.02% or 1.27 points to 126.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Megion (MCX:MFGS), which lost 4.06% or 26.0 points to trade at 614.0 in late trade. FSK EES (MCX:FEES) declined 2.87% or 0.0056 points to end at 0.1892 and Ros Agro PLC (MCX:AGRODR) shed 2.68% or 19 points to 690.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 104 to 99 and 24 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.26% to 23.500.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.24% or 3.05 to $1246.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.37% or 0.18 to hit $47.86 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.06% or 0.03 to trade at $50.67 a barrel.
USD/RUB was down 0.59% to 57.4454, while EUR/RUB fell 0.76% to 61.912.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 99.57.