MOSCOW: Russia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Mining sectors led shares lower. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 0.43%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were Unipro (MCX:UPRO), which rose 3.19% or 0.0790 points to trade at 2.5590 at the close. Meanwhile, NMTP (MCX:NMTP) added 2.58% or 0.1600 points to end at 6.3550 and Polymetal International PLC (MCX:POLY) was up 1.78% or 12.00 points to 687.00 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were MTS (MCX:MTSS), which fell 3.31% or 8.90 points to trade at 260.10 at the close. AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS) declined 3.28% or 0.730 points to end at 21.545 and Moskovskaya Birzha OAO (MCX:MOEX) was down 2.69% or 3.05 points to 110.15. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 103 to 92 and 25 ended unchanged.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 5.60% to 26.490. Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.22% or 2.65 to $1199.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.70% or 0.81 to hit $48.53 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.39% or 0.71 to trade at $51.63 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 0.32% to 58.9732, while EUR/RUB fell 0.38% to 62.799. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.32% at 101.29.
