MOSCOW: Russia stocks were higher after the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Mining, Oil & Gas and Telecoms sectors led shares higher. At the close in Moscow, the MICEX gained 0.96%. The best performers of the session on the MICEX were SG mechel (MCX:MTLR), which rose 5.81% or 8.16 points to trade at 148.52 at the close. Meanwhile, AFK Sistema (MCX:AFKS) added 3.54% or 0.780 points to end at 22.800 and Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya OAO (MCX:TRMK) was up 3.31% or 2.40 points to 75.00 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were FSK EES (MCX:FEES), which fell 3.63% or 0.0065 points to trade at 0.1725 at the close. Rosseti ao (MCX:RSTI) declined 2.17% or 0.0205 points to end at 0.9230 and AK Transneft OAO Pref (MCX:TRNF_p) was down 2.13% or 4000 points to 183750. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 114 to 97 and 20 ended unchanged.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was down 1.34% to 22.770. Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.08% or 0.95 to $1254.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.84% or 0.88 to hit $48.61 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.63% or 0.83 to trade at $51.73 a barrel. USD/RUB was up 0.07% to 56.9488, while EUR/RUB fell 0.23% to 61.757. The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 99.19.