Russia shares lower at close of trade; MICEX down 0.16%

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

At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 0.16% to hit a new 6-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were SG mechel (MCX: MTLR ), which rose 2.69% or 4.19 points to trade at 159.93 at the close. Rosseti ao (MCX: RSTI ) added 2.58% or 0.0230 points to end at 0.9130 and Surgut-pref (MCX: SNGS_p ) was up 2.39% or 0.720 points to 30.900 in late trade.

Biggest losers included ANK Bashneft OAO Pref (MCX: BANE_p ), which lost 4.01% or 48.0 points to trade at 1150.0 in late trade. Megion (MCX: MFGS ) declined 4.00% or 23.0 points to end at 552.0 and MosEnrg (MCX: MSNG ) shed 2.97% or 0.0650 points to 2.1260.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 125 to 83 and 18 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 2.12% to 23.580.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.71% or 9.05 to $1287.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.26% or 0.14 to hit $52.97 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.45% or 0.25 to trade at $55.61 a barrel.

USD/RUB was down 0.69% to 56.2105, while EUR/RUB fell 0.94% to 59.817.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.32% at 100.38.