Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Power, Telecoms and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 2.50% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Bashneft ANK ao (MCX:BANE), which rose 6.70% or 234.5 points to trade at 3732.5 at the close. AK Transneft OAO Pref (MCX:TRNF_p) added 4.33% or 7550 points to end at 182000 and Surgut-pref (MCX:SNGS_p) was up 3.29% or 1.025 points to 32.150 in late trade.
Biggest losers included FSK EES (MCX:FEES), which lost 17.34% or 0.0344 points to trade at 0.1638 in late trade. Rosseti ao (MCX:RSTI) declined 13.38% or 0.1287 points to end at 0.8329 and SG mechel (MCX:MTLR) shed 7.78% or 11.34 points to 134.47.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 205 to 38 and 3 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was up 18.51% to 27.850 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.51% or 6.15 to $1203.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 2.35% or 1.18 to hit $49.10 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 2.22% or 1.18 to trade at $51.93 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 1.95% to 59.3138, while EUR/RUB rose 1.08% to 62.751.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 101.93.