Brexit woes, low oil price push Russian stocks down

MOSCOW, Jun 14 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on Tuesday as rumors and talks concerning the possibility of the so-called Brexit, or the U.K. leaving the E.U., a contraction of oil prices below the U.S. $50 per barrel mark and a general negative background did not leave any room for purchases on the market, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.93% to 1,885.92 and the RTS decreased 2.65% to 900.19.

The background today was negative as futures for U.S., European and Asian stock indices fell, while the Brent oil price fell 1.615% to $49.55 per barrel as of 5:59 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“The dynamics are based on investors fleeing from risks…On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) is to publish its decision on the monetary policy, while next week the U.K. is to vote on the E.U. membership issue. Fears that the country will choose leaving the European Union, fueled by results of recent polls, exert pressure on a major part of risky assets,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said.

The possibility of the Fed toughening the monetary policy is low, but its Chairwoman Janet Yellen and her colleagues still have been prompting an increase of the key rate. “If the Fed raises the rate tomorrow, this will strengthen the U.S. dollar on the currency market and lead to a wave of sales on stock exchanges,” Andrei Dirgin, head of the analytical department at Alfa-Forex, said.

“Investors are focused now on only one event – the upcoming referendum in the U.K. on June 23. The probability of the U.K. leaving the E.U. is higher than ever, so investors from all around the world chose to leave risky assets and invest in non-risky ones, like bonds and gold. The growth of risks led to a yield of Germany’s 10-year bonds falling to below zero on Tuesday, which has happened for the first time in history,” Vasily Oleinik, an expert at brokerage and investment company ITinvest, said.

Shares of Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank lost 4.81% to 127.08 rubles still under influence of a recent dividend cut-off, Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Shares of the country’s second biggest bank VTB Bank fell 2.47% to 0.071 rubles due to a decrease of the ruble’s exchange rate, Kochetkov said.

Oil company Surgutneftegas went up 3.40% to 33.935 rubles, while preferred shares of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and common shares of oil company Tatneft grew 4.41% to 172,900 rubles and 1.74% to 322 rubles, respectively, due to an increase of their weight in the MVIS Russia Index. The increase will come into effect after the Friday trading, Alexander Kostyukov, an analyst at investment company Veles Capital, said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-4.81	127.08	14.047
Gazprom	-0.42	141.84	3.405
Surgutneftegas prefs	-3.26	38.55	2.851
Magnit	-1.80	8660.00	2.192
Lukoil	+1.29	2670.00	2.112

(64.7077 rubles – U.S. $1)

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