Russia shares higher at close of trade; MOEX Russia up 0.55%

Investing.com – Russia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas , Mining and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Moscow, the MOEX Russia gained 0.55%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MOEX Russia were Severstal - ao (MCX: CHMF ), which rose 2.47% or 22.70 points to trade at 941.80 at the close. Tatneft-3 (MCX: TATN ) added 2.38% or 13.45 points to end at 578.65 and NLMK ao (MCX: NLMK ) was up 2.31% or 3.40 points to 150.40 in late trade.

Biggest losers included NK RussNeft PAO (MCX: RNFT ), which lost 2.82% or 17.0 points to trade at 585.5 in late trade. NMTP (MCX: NMTP ) declined 2.80% or 0.2450 points to end at 8.5000 and Magnit (MCX: MGNT ) shed 2.08% or 111.0 points to 5219.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 118 to 99 and 23 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MOEX Russia options, was up 1.16% to 19.980.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.19% or 2.60 to $1345.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.14% or 0.74 to hit $65.47 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.52% or 0.36 to trade at $69.25 a barrel.

USD/RUB was down 0.23% to 56.0773, while EUR/RUB rose 0.38% to 70.0158.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 88.59.