MOSCOW: Russia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Manufacturing sectors led shares lower. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 0.55%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were Polyus Zoloto OAO (MCX:PLZL), which rose 2.65% or 115.0 points to trade at 4448.0 at the close. Meanwhile, Moskovskaya Birzha OAO (MCX:MOEX) added 2.06% or 2.31 points to end at 114.32 and AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS) was up 1.50% or 0.330 points to 22.300 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were AK Transneft OAO Pref (MCX:TRNF_p), which fell 3.79% or 7850 points to trade at 199150 at the close. Tatneft-3 (MCX:TATN) declined 3.04% or 10.95 points to end at 349.00 and Akron (MCX:AKRN) was down 1.79% or 60.0 points to 3288.0. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 108 to 107 and 29 ended unchanged.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.30% to 22.840. Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.04% or 0.55 to $1247.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.31% or 0.15 to hit $47.85 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.07 to trade at $50.63 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 0.77% to 56.9944, while EUR/RUB fell 0.23% to 61.773.
