Russia shares lower at close of trade; MOEX Russia down 0.43%

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

At the close in Moscow, the MOEX Russia fell 0.43%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MOEX Russia were FSK EES (MCX: FEES ), which rose 1.56% or 0.0025 points to trade at 0.1631 at the close. X5 Retail Group NV (MCX: FIVEDR ) added 1.27% or 23.0 points to end at 1834.0 and Yandex NV (MCX: YNDX ) was up 1.12% or 23.00 points to 2083.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included AFK Sistema (MCX: AFKS ), which lost 3.06% or 0.292 points to trade at 9.255 in late trade. Moskovskaya Birzha OAO (MCX: MOEX ) declined 2.75% or 2.60 points to end at 91.80 and NK Rosneft PAO (MCX: ROSN ) shed 2.71% or 11.40 points to 408.50.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 114 to 112 and 18 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MOEX Russia options, was down 0.09% to 22.700.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.16% or 2.05 to $1281.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.70% or 0.37 to hit $52.99 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.15% or 0.09 to trade at $61.05 a barrel.

USD/RUB was down 0.48% to 65.7635, while EUR/RUB fell 0.86% to 74.5750.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.30% at 96.055.