Russia shares higher at close of trade; MICEX up 0.28%

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

At the close in Moscow, the MICEX rose 0.28%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Unipro (MCX: UPRO ), which rose 5.98% or 0.1550 points to trade at 2.7450 at the close. Rostelecom (MCX: RTKM ) added 4.33% or 3.25 points to end at 78.25 and MosEnrg (MCX: MSNG ) was up 3.31% or 0.0790 points to 2.4640 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Megion (MCX: MFGS ), which lost 2.63% or 17.0 points to trade at 630.0 in late trade. AFK Sistema (MCX: AFKS ) declined 2.55% or 0.570 points to end at 21.745 and Severstal - ao (MCX: CHMF ) shed 2.17% or 18.10 points to 815.40.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 108 to 106 and 10 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was up 1.36% to 23.160.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.28% or 3.45 to $1233.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.63% or 0.31 to hit $49.00 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.12% or 0.06 to trade at $51.70 a barrel.

USD/RUB was up 0.32% to 57.4040, while EUR/RUB fell 0.48% to 61.672.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 100.21.