MOSCOW: Russia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Power, Mining and Telecoms sectors led shares higher. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX rose 1.09%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were FSK EES (MCX:FEES), which rose 5.94% or 0.0106 points to trade at 0.1900 at the close. Meanwhile, ALROSA ao (MCX:ALRS) added 5.16% or 4.490 points to end at 91.500 and Polymetal International PLC (MCX:POLY) was up 4.80% or 33.00 points to 720.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Bashneft ANK ao (MCX:BANE), which fell 4.11% or 143.0 points to trade at 3337.5 at the close. PIK (MCX:PIKK) declined 2.07% or 6.20 points to end at 293.20 and MegaFon OAO (MCX:MFON) was down 1.92% or 11.70 points to 599.00. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 133 to 78 and 19 ended unchanged. The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 10.35% to 22.510.
Gold Futures for April delivery was up 2.33% or 27.95 to $1228.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.23% or 0.11 to hit $48.75 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.14% or 0.07 to trade at $51.74 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 1.03% to 57.7920, while EUR/RUB fell 0.94% to 62.115. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.16% at 100.20.
