Russia shares lower at close of trade; MICEX down 0.77%

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

At the close in Moscow, the MICEX lost 0.77%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were NLMK ao (MCX: NLMK ), which rose 3.50% or 2.92 points to trade at 86.28 at the close. Severstal - ao (MCX: CHMF ) added 3.22% or 22.90 points to end at 734.90 and FSK EES (MCX: FEES ) was up 2.66% or 0.0022 points to 0.0848 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Uralkaliy (MCX: URKA ), which lost 3.62% or 6.15 points to trade at 163.95 in late trade. VTB (MCX: VTBR ) declined 2.84% or 0.0022 points to end at 0.0745 and MMC Norilsk Nickel (MCX: GMKN ) shed 2.76% or 240.0 points to 8460.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 136 to 90 and 19 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 8.57% to 36.700.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.55% or 19.20 to $1216.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 3.78% or 1.45 to hit $36.89 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 3.99% or 1.61 to trade at $38.72 a barrel.

USD/RUB was up 0.99% to 67.6956, while EUR/RUB rose 1.30% to 77.175.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 94.61.