Russia shares lower at close of trade; MOEX Russia down 0.24%

Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas , Power and Manufacturing sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Moscow, the MOEX Russia declined 0.24%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MOEX Russia were United Company Rusal Plc (MCX: RUAL ), which rose 15.33% or 4.040 points to trade at 30.395 at the close. NK RussNeft PAO (MCX: RNFT ) added 2.79% or 13.6 points to end at 500.4 and Moskovskiy Kreditnyi Bank OAO (MCX: CBOM ) was up 2.20% or 0.110 points to 5.110 in late trade.

Biggest losers included NPK OVK PAO (MCX: UWGN ), which lost 6.93% or 28.4 points to trade at 381.6 in late trade. SG mechel (MCX: MTLR ) declined 3.00% or 2.40 points to end at 77.50 and Magnit (MCX: MGNT ) shed 2.99% or 110.0 points to 3565.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 128 to 85 and 19 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MOEX Russia options, was down 0.47% to 27.310.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.45% or 5.60 to $1262.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 4.86% or 2.34 to hit $45.83 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 4.37% or 2.50 to trade at $54.74 a barrel.

USD/RUB was up 1.36% to 68.3850, while EUR/RUB rose 1.77% to 78.1215.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.35% at 96.148.