MOSCOW: Russia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Mining and Manufacturing sectors led shares higher. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX gained 0.18%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were Megion (MCX:MFGS), which rose 6.52% or 36.0 points to trade at 588.0 at the close. Meanwhile, Uralkaliy (MCX:URKA) added 6.12% or 9.05 points to end at 156.95 and MTS (MCX:MTSS) was up 3.85% or 9.50 points to 256.00 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were AK Transneft OAO Pref (MCX:TRNF_p), which fell 2.46% or 4800 points to trade at 190500 at the close. SG mechel (MCX:MTLR) declined 2.38% or 4.00 points to end at 164.15 and VTB (MCX:VTBR) was down 2.04% or 0.0014 points to 0.0657. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 117 to 92 and 28 ended unchanged.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 0.72% to 23.570. Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.07% or 0.89 to $1229.49 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.23% or 0.56 to hit $46.08 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.07% or 0.52 to trade at $48.90 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 0.33% to 58.1750, while EUR/RUB rose 0.22% to 63.894. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 98.53.
