MOSCOW: Russia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Mining, Telecoms and Power sectors led shares higher. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX gained 0.40%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were DIXY Group ao (MCX:DIXY), which rose 5.31% or 10.80 points to trade at 214.00 at the close. Meanwhile, AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS) added 4.48% or 0.600 points to end at 14.000 and Uralkaliy (MCX:URKA) was up 4.31% or 5.30 points to 128.30 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Aeroflot (MCX:AFLT), which fell 1.52% or 2.95 points to trade at 191.35 at the close. Magnit (MCX:MGNT) declined 0.54% or 50.0 points to end at 9280.0 and Gazprom PAO (MCX:GAZP) was down 0.38% or 0.45 points to 119.10.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 127 to 87 and 17 ended unchanged. The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.77% to 22.810. Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.62% or 7.80 to $1257.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.56% or 0.24 to hit $42.98 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.64% or 0.29 to trade at $45.51 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 0.90% to 59.4063, while EUR/RUB fell 0.42% to 66.6580. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 96.97.
