Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Power sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX fell 1.46% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Megion (MCX:MFGS), which rose 8.70% or 48.0 points to trade at 600.0 at the close. NMTP (MCX:NMTP) added 5.07% or 0.3150 points to end at 6.5300 and Polymetal International PLC (MCX:POLY) was up 3.84% or 29.50 points to 798.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Rosseti ao (MCX:RSTI), which lost 3.40% or 0.0310 points to trade at 0.8820 in late trade. Surgut-pref (MCX:SNGS_p) declined 3.24% or 1.000 points to end at 29.900 and Ros Agro PLC (MCX:AGRODR) shed 3.24% or 22 points to 656.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 138 to 81 and 16 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 2.56% to 23.580.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.89% or 11.35 to $1289.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.41% or 0.22 to hit $52.89 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $55.64 a barrel.
USD/RUB was down 0.09% to 56.2177, while EUR/RUB rose 0.01% to 59.741.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.43% at 100.49.