Falling oil, coronavirus spread push Russian stocks down again

MOSCOW, Mar 11 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged down again on Wednesday following the negative dynamics of the global energy and stock exchanges, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.24% to 2,492.88 and the RTS slid 0.73% to 1,130.62.

“The negative dynamics persisted on the Russian stock market on Wednesday thanks to the external background. Bears were supported by another wave of decline on the energy market with the nearest Brent oil futures again losing over 4.5% to U.S. $36 per barrel,” senior analyst at Promsvyazbank Bogdan Zvarich said.

The situation on the U.S. bourses also encouraged sales. The major benchmarks Dow Jones and S&P500 dropped 4% and 3.6%, respectively, in the first 40 minutes of trading, he added.

Zvarich said that the global markets are still pressured by the spread of coronavirus outside China, which forces investors to flee from risky to safety assets.

Metals giant Norilsk Nickel, multi-industry company Sistema and hydropower giant RusHydro were among the biggest losers sliding by over 5%.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that oil company Lukoil outperformed the market significantly rising around 8% on the news it plans a buyback of shares using borrowed funds so that it could retain dividends at a high level.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’s five most active stocks on Wednesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.32	194.53	27.369
Lukoil	+7.89	4908	22.877
Gazprom	+0.6	172.03	18.689
Norilsk Nickel	-4.67	20238	12.369
Rosneft	-3.81	314.05	6.626

(72.0208 rubles – U.S. $1)

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