Falling global floors, oil price, ruble depress Russian stocks

MOSCOW, Mar 24 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Thursday, depressed by falling global trading floors, Brent oil price and the ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.70% to 1,866.67 and the RTS decreased 2.10% to 847.26.

“The Russian stock market followed downward dynamics of global markets. Commodity markets showed the same dynamics, they decreased after reaching local highs. During trading on Thursday, Brent price fell below a psychological level of $40 per barrel,” Alexander Kostyukov, an analyst at Veles Capital, said, adding that oil prices declined on U.S. oil reserve and output data.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday that the country’s commercial oil reserves rose by 9.36 million barrels, above market expectations, Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said. A rise of the dollar after representatives of the U.S. Federal Reserve System proposed considering a key rate increase in April already also put risky assets under pressure, she added.

Falling futures on U.S., European and Asian indices were an additional negative factor for the Russian stock market, Rogova said.

TeleTrade analyst Mikhail Poddubsky said that most European and U.S. trading floors will be closed tomorrow on Good Friday, and investors were taking profits before the day off.

The rise of the dollar-denominated RTS was sped up by the ruble weakening against the dollar, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Construction company Mostotrest rose 52.87% to 120 rubles after it signed a 96.9 billion ruble contract to build the major part of pillars and superstructures of a bridge across the Kerch Strait. Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Falling oil prices put under pressure Russian oil and gas companies: state-run oil major Rosneft decreased 1.42% to 304.8 rubles, oil and gas producer Surgutneftegas fell 0.97% to 38.85 rubles and oil company Tatneft decreased 2.64% to 348.5 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.95	108.06	10.092
Gazprom	-0.14	145.80	3.573
Norilsk Nickel	-2.28	9020.00	2.695
Lukoil	-2.70	2615.00	2.562
Magnit	-0.53	11041.00	1.654

(67.6409 rubles – U.S. $1)

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