Investing.com – Russia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Power and Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX rose 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were ANK Bashneft OAO Pref (MCX:BANE_p), which rose 3.84% or 71.0 points to trade at 1920.5 at the close. Rostelecom (MCX:RTKM) added 2.17% or 2.03 points to end at 95.63 and Aeroflot (MCX:AFLT) was up 2.11% or 1.32 points to 63.77 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ros Agro PLC (MCX:AGRO), which lost 2.87% or 36 points to trade at 1219 in late trade. Lukoil (MCX:LKOH) declined 1.90% or 52.0 points to end at 2692.0 and United Company Rusal Plc (MCX:RUAL) shed 1.77% or 0.460 points to 25.550.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 124 to 108 and 19 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was up 8.49% to 42.920.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 1.28% or 16.10 to $1273.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.65% or 0.63 to hit $37.66 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 2.68% or 1.10 to trade at $39.97 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 0.93% to 71.7699, while EUR/RUB rose 2.86% to 80.441.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.26% at 95.97.