MOSCOW: Russia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Mining, Telecoms and Oil & Gas sectors led shares lower. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX declined 0.92% to hit a new 1-month low. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were AK Transneft OAO Pref (MCX:TRNF_p), which rose 2.33% or 4350 points to trade at 190750 at the close. Meanwhile, Unipro (MCX:UPRO) added 0.73% or 0.0200 points to end at 2.7550 and United Company Rusal Plc (MCX:RUAL) was up 0.65% or 0.200 points to 31.050 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were SG mechel (MCX:MTLR), which fell 3.40% or 5.88 points to trade at 166.92 at the close. Tatneft-3 (MCX:TATN) declined 2.59% or 10.25 points to end at 385.20 and Rosneft (MCX:ROSN) was down 2.41% or 9.15 points to 369.85. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 135 to 82 and 22 ended unchanged. The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 0.34% to 23.290. Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.06% or 0.75 to $1225.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.23% or 0.12 to hit $53.05 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.38% or 0.21 to trade at $55.80 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 0.93% to 57.4475, while EUR/RUB fell 1.16% to 60.734. The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 101.29.
