MOSCOW: Russia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Mining and Manufacturing sectors led shares higher. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX gained 0.82%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were Sberbank Rossii OAO Pref (MCX:SBER_p), which rose 3.99% or 4.50 points to trade at 117.40 at the close. Meanwhile, AK Transneft OAO Pref (MCX:TRNF_p) added 3.81% or 6650 points to end at 181050 and Gruppa LSR PAO (MCX:LSRG) was up 3.41% or 28.5 points to 863.5 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Uralkaliy (MCX:URKA), which fell 3.24% or 5.05 points to trade at 150.80 at the close. Unipro (MCX:UPRO) declined 1.55% or 0.0410 points to end at 2.5960 and Rosseti ao (MCX:RSTI) was down 1.49% or 0.0131 points to 0.8641. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 133 to 83 and 19 ended unchanged. Shares in Uralkaliy (MCX:URKA) fell to 52-week lows; down 3.24% or 5.05 to 150.80.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was up 0.71% to 22.670. Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.19% or 2.40 to $1281.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $50.86 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.30% or 0.16 to trade at $53.09 a barrel. USD/RUB was down 0.77% to 56.1469, while EUR/RUB fell 0.16% to 60.482. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 99.54.