Flat oil prices, Gazprom ex-div date weigh on Russian stocks

MOSCOW, Jul 19 (PRIME) – Lackluster oil prices, falling foreign bourses and the ex-dividend trading in shares of gas giant Gazprom weighed on Russian stocks down on Tuesday, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.04% to 1,915.89 and the RTS decreased 1.71% to 952.80.

“The unclear external background dominated by sales and the inability of the Brent oil price to stay above a U.S. $47 per barrel mark, influenced the mood of investors today,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex group of companies, said.

Brent rose 0.064% to $46.99 per barrel as of 5.56 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

The corporate factors also depressed the market. “Today, Gazprom was trading without dividends, and its fall even exceeded 4% for some time during the day. The factor exerted additional pressure on the ruble-denominated index of the Russian market, as the company’s shares have the largest relative share in the MICEX index,” Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex’ analytical department, said.

The Russian stock indices looked weaker than one could have expected on the basis of external background, but Gazprom, which lost 4.36% to 139.48 rubles, have a very significant share in the indices, Vitaly Manzhos, an analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

“But we should add that the local market has no significant drivers for a sharp movement in any direction. Investors and speculators are wary of deals due to the lack of external and internal news. The recent tragic events in France, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Armenia had no significant impact on the Russian market, but they formed a common uneasy mood, which does not support active purchases in shares,” Manzhos said.

Russian depositary receipts of aluminum giant UC RUSAL grew 4.25% to 225.9 rubles after media reported that companies belonging to the son of Russian businessman Suleiman Kerimov, Said Kerimov, can buy a 17.02% stake in RUSAL from Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group, Manzhos said.

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) outperformed the market and lost only 0.12% to 28.255 rubles as the company repaid a $403 million loan that it took out to build a plant in Turkey before maturity, Kovalyov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.33	139.47	7.434
Gazprom	-4.36	139.48	5.473
Surgutneftegas prefs	-5.56	32.30	5.177
Lukoil	+1.04	2828.00	1.711
Magnit	-1.58	9104.00	1.421

(63.1154 rubles – U.S. $1)

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