Falling oil prices, weak ruble push Russian stocks down

MOSCOW, Mar 2 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Thursday on the back of falling oil prices and the ruble depreciation, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.53% to 2,049.00 and the RTS decreased 0.86% to 1,099.82.

“Weakening of the energy market, where the Brent oil price again returned to the level of U.S. $55.5 (per barrel), was the main reason for sales (on the Russian stock market),” Finam analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said a lack of hope for higher dividends and quick improvement of relations between Russia and the U.S. continues pushing Russian stocks down.

Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said the stock market growth was restrained by falling oil prices, which are pressured by concerns about excessive oil production in the world. The U.S. commercial oil reserves have been growing for eight weeks in a row, she said.

Top national lender Sberbank rose 2.13% after reporting that its net profit more than doubled to 541.9 billion rubles in 2016, as calculated under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

National flagship carrier Aeroflot fell 1.89% despite posting a 38.826 billion ruble IFRS net profit in 2016 against a 6.5 billion ruble net loss in 2015.

The Moscow Exchange lost 2.95% on reports that its IFRS net profit contracted by 9.6% to 25.183 billion rubles in 2016.

Power utility Mosenergo went down 1.47% despite positive financial results for 2016 under Russian Accounting Standards, with its net profit jumping 70% to 11.062 billion rubles.

Russia’s largest children goods retailer Detsky Mir, whose IFRS net profit surged to 3.82 billion rubles in 2016 from 976 million rubles in 2015, decreased 0.68%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.13	163.40	10.628
Gazprom	-1.91	131.30	5.671
Rosneft	-1.52	336.60	2.149
Aeroflot	-1.89	174.00	2.026
Lukoil	-1.09	3086.00	1.718

(58.3776 rubles – U.S. $1)

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