Russia shares higher at close of trade; MOEX Russia up 2.21%

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

At the close in Moscow, the MOEX Russia added 2.21% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the MOEX Russia were Sberbank Rossii PAO (MCX: SBER ), which rose 4.48% or 11.98 points to trade at 279.20 at the close. Magnit (MCX: MGNT ) added 4.47% or 205.0 points to end at 4793.0 and Sberbank Rossii OAO Pref (MCX: SBER_p ) was up 3.75% or 8.10 points to 224.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included NLMK ao (MCX: NLMK ), which lost 3.07% or 4.70 points to trade at 148.30 in late trade. Lenta Ltd (MCX: LNTADR ) declined 1.70% or 6 points to end at 375 and PIK (MCX: PIKK ) shed 1.00% or 3.20 points to 316.80.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 135 to 74 and 18 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The Russian VIX , which measures the implied volatility of MOEX Russia options, was down 0.42% to 21.290.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.02% or 0.30 to $1330.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.39% or 0.24 to hit $61.55 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.05 to trade at $65.20 a barrel.

USD/RUB was up 0.18% to 56.6643, while EUR/RUB rose 0.02% to 69.7986.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 89.81.