MOSCOW: Russia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Mining, Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors propelled shares lower. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX fell 1.01% to hit a new 3-month low. The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Inter rao ees (MCX:IRAO), which rose 9.70% or 0.3560 points to trade at 4.0255 at the close. FSK EES (MCX:FEES) added 3.88% or 0.0080 points to end at 0.2140 and AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS) was up 2.86% or 0.630 points to 22.620 in late trade.
Biggest losers included PhosAgro ao (MCX:PHOR), which lost 3.26% or 81.0 points to trade at 2400.0 in late trade. Tatneft OAO Pref (MCX:TATN_p) declined 3.15% or 6.90 points to end at 212.00 and Tatneft-3 (MCX:TATN) shed 3.11% or 10.95 points to 340.95. Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 176 to 58 and 14 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.54% to 26.930 a new 3-month high. In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.19% or 2.35 to $1256.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.39% or 0.75 to hit $53.30 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 1.21% or 0.68 to trade at $55.74 a barrel. USD/RUB was up 0.67% to 58.4650, while EUR/RUB rose 0.70% to 62.075. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 100.93.
