Russia shares higher at close of trade; MOEX Russia up 0.31%

Investing.com – Russia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Power , Oil & Gas and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Moscow, the MOEX Russia gained 0.31% to hit a new 6-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MOEX Russia were Moskovskaya Birzha OAO (MCX: MOEX ), which rose 3.98% or 4.34 points to trade at 113.40 at the close. NMTP (MCX: NMTP ) added 3.07% or 0.2450 points to end at 8.2250 and Gazprom PAO (MCX: GAZP ) was up 2.45% or 3.43 points to 143.43 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Polyus OAO (MCX: PLZL ), which lost 3.18% or 145.0 points to trade at 4411.0 in late trade. Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya OAO (MCX: TRMK ) declined 1.95% or 1.50 points to end at 75.50 and Sberbank Rossii OAO Pref (MCX: SBER_p ) shed 1.88% or 3.78 points to 197.52.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 122 to 105 and 16 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MOEX Russia options, was down 5.60% to 16.520.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.33% or 4.30 to $1318.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.56% or 0.35 to hit $63.31 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.16% or 0.11 to trade at $68.93 a barrel.

USD/RUB was up 0.09% to 57.0447, while EUR/RUB rose 0.29% to 68.2175.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 92.02.