Russia shares higher at close of trade; MICEX up 1.66%

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

At the close in Moscow, the MICEX rose 1.66%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Inter rao ees (MCX: IRAO ), which rose 7.67% or 0.1745 points to trade at 2.4500 at the close. Magnit (MCX: MGNT ) added 4.82% or 400.0 points to end at 8700.0 and AFK Sistema (MCX: AFKS ) was up 4.58% or 0.900 points to 20.540 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Gruppa Cherkizovo ao (MCX: GCHE ), which lost 0.92% or 8.0 points to trade at 860.0 in late trade. Surgut-pref (MCX: SNGS_p ) declined 0.89% or 0.345 points to end at 38.400 and Uralkaliy (MCX: URKA ) shed 0.67% or 1.20 points to 178.45.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 131 to 85 and 21 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.47% to 34.130.

In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.71% or 9.35 to $1327.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.88% or 1.38 to hit $49.23 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 2.86% or 1.41 to trade at $50.67 a barrel.

USD/RUB was down 0.45% to 63.7897, while EUR/RUB fell 0.17% to 70.791.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.41% at 95.80.