Falling oil prices, weak ruble push Russian stocks down

MOSCOW, Aug 24 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Wednesday pressured by falling oil prices and a depreciated ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.30% to 1,983.59 and the RTS decreased 1.46% to 958.04.

“By the end of the day the Russian stock market corrected on the back of falling prices for black gold. Oil quotations were falling during the day amid uncertainty over Iran’s participation in talks between OPEC members and Russia, which will take place in Algeria next month. After the U.S. data was released, oil quotations enhanced their downward trend,” Veles Capital analyst Yegor Dakhtler said.

“Oil remained under pressure today. Brent oil quotations reached U.S. $49.16 per barrel at some point. The released data on the U.S. commercial oil reserves by the International Energy Agency (IEA) became an additional negative factor. The reserves grew by 2.5 million barrels, while the forecast implied reduction by 460,000 barrels,” Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said.

The Russian ruble fell in line with oil prices. The dollar-denominated RTS index lost over 1% on the back of a weakened ruble, Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said.

Retailer Dixy increased 2.3% after reporting that its net profit rose 13.1% on the year to 1.071 billion rubles in April–June, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Precious metals producer Polymetal International gained 0.15% on reports that its IFRS net profit jumped by about 70% on the year to $164 million in January–June.

Vozrozhdenie Bank increased 1.1% after posting a 504 million ruble net profit in January–June after a 569 million ruble net loss in the same period of 2015, under IFRS.

Meat producer Cherkizovo Group fell 1.07% on reports that its IFRS net profit decreased to 948.8 million rubles in January–June from 5.7 billion rubles in the same period in 2015.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.61	139.50	6.481
Magnit	-3.69	10250.00	2.108
Gazprom	-0.27	137.00	1.848
Lukoil	+0.7	3035.00	1.211
Surgutneftegas pref	-1.38	32.40	0.899

(64.7684 rubles – U.S. $1)

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