Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX lost 1.82%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were United Company Rusal Plc (MCX:RUAL), which rose 6.98% or 1.350 points to trade at 20.700 at the close. Gruppa LSR PAO (MCX:LSRG) added 4.25% or 33.0 points to end at 809.5 and Surgut-pref (MCX:SNGS_p) was up 1.79% or 0.690 points to 39.200 in late trade.
Biggest losers included MegaFon OAO (MCX:MFON), which lost 5.25% or 37.50 points to trade at 676.50 in late trade. Sberbank Rossii OAO Pref (MCX:SBER_p) declined 4.81% or 4.60 points to end at 91.01 and MTS (MCX:MTSS) shed 4.70% or 11.75 points to 238.15.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 146 to 74 and 28 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.23% to 36.890.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 4.48% or 56.55 to $1319.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 4.81% or 2.41 to hit $47.70 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 4.83% or 2.46 to trade at $48.45 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 1.91% to 65.0518, while EUR/RUB fell 0.21% to 72.381.
The US Dollar Index was up 2.36% at 95.53.