Investing.com – Russia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Manufacturing and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 0.70%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were DIXY Group ao (MCX:DIXY), which rose 3.55% or 10.40 points to trade at 303.60 at the close. Tatneft OAO Pref (MCX:TATN_p) added 2.89% or 5.70 points to end at 203.00 and Inter rao ees (MCX:IRAO) was up 2.23% or 0.0380 points to 1.7385 in late trade.
Biggest losers included MMK (MCX:MAGN), which lost 3.76% or 0.845 points to trade at 21.605 in late trade. Lukoil (MCX:LKOH) declined 2.70% or 72.5 points to end at 2615.0 and Tatneft-3 (MCX:TATN) shed 2.64% or 9.45 points to 348.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 107 to 102 and 37 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was up 1.66% to 36.210.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.20% or 2.50 to $1221.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.85% or 0.34 to hit $39.45 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.35% or 0.14 to trade at $40.33 a barrel.
USD/RUB was up 0.25% to 68.8925, while EUR/RUB rose 0.39% to 77.070.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.07% at 96.13.