Russia shares lower at close of trade; MICEX down 1.62%

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

At the close in Moscow, the MICEX fell 1.62% to hit a new 6-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were GidroOGK-011D (MCX: HYDR ), which rose 6.41% or 0.0500 points to trade at 0.8300 at the close. MosEnrg (MCX: MSNG ) added 2.76% or 0.0635 points to end at 2.3655 and PIK (MCX: PIKK ) was up 2.05% or 6.20 points to 308.20 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Surgut (MCX: SNGS ), which lost 10.34% or 3.130 points to trade at 27.150 in late trade. Tatneft OAO Pref (MCX: TATN_p ) declined 6.66% or 19.90 points to end at 279.00 and NLMK ao (MCX: NLMK ) shed 5.54% or 6.40 points to 109.10.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 146 to 73 and 16 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.64% to 25.770 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.65% or 8.29 to $1263.71 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 1.08% or 0.52 to hit $48.84 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.67% or 0.34 to trade at $51.10 a barrel.

USD/RUB was down 0.40% to 56.3368, while EUR/RUB fell 1.12% to 63.151.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.26% at 97.16.