Analysts say Russian stocks close mixed on lack of drivers

MOSCOW, Mar 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market demonstrated mixed dynamics on Monday amid a moderately negative global environment and a lack of major drivers, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.46%% to 2,047.42 and the RTS rose 0.2% to 1,110.46.

“Investor optimism of the morning reversed into sales later in the day. However, the downward trend had exhausted its momentum last week, and the market is likely to stay mixed until new strong cues appear,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

The European benchmarks declined during the day while the Brent oil price consolidated around $55.5, Finam analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

Steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) fell 1.35% to 110.00 rubles after it said that its 2016 IFRS report profit rose 4.4% to 61.27 billion rubles, but fell 3% to U.S. $935 million in dollar terms. The board approved dividend payments at 3.38 rubles per share for October-December translating into 9.22 rubles per share for the entire 2016.

Stocks of multi-industry holding Sistema, carmaker Sollers and metals and mining group Mechel were among the best performers gaining 3.23% to 22.5 rubles, 2.01% to 609.00 rubles and 2.54% to 143.45 rubles, respectively.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Monday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.46%	162.00	6.051
Gazprom	-0.15%	134.60	3.793
Moscow Exchange	-4.02%	113.51	2.195
M.Video	-0.37%	379.60	1.474
Rosneft	-1.34%	332.00	1.370

(58.9099 rubles – U.S. $1)

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