MOSCOW: Russia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Mining, Telecoms and Oil & Gas sectors led shares lower. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX lost 1.27%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were AK Transneft OAO Pref (MCX:TRNF_p), which rose 4.92% or 9250 points to trade at 197250 at the close. Meanwhile, Tatneft OAO Pref (MCX:TATN_p) added 4.17% or 10.50 points to end at 262.00 and RusHydro JSC (MCX:HYDR) was up 2.72% or 0.0244 points to 0.9216 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS), which fell 12.63% or 1.990 points to trade at 13.760 at the close. MMK (MCX:MAGN) declined 3.75% or 1.320 points to end at 33.870 and PhosAgro ao (MCX:PHOR) was down 3.43% or 85.0 points to 2394.0. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 129 to 85 and 18 ended unchanged.
Shares in AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS) fell to 52-week lows; down 12.63% or 1.990 to 13.760. Shares in Tatneft OAO Pref (MCX:TATN_p) rose to all time highs; up 4.17% or 10.50 to 262.00. The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.03% to 25.100. Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.37% or 4.57 to $1223.47 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.14% or 0.54 to hit $47.87 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.10% or 0.55 to trade at $50.77 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 0.72% to 57.0374, while EUR/RUB fell 0.74% to 61.985. The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 99.52.
