Geopolitical tensions push overheat Russian stocks down

MOSCOW, Aug 9 (PRIME) – Overheat Russian stocks contracted on Wednesday as a conflict between the U.S. and North Korea flared pushing the world bourses down, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.69% to 1,975.91 and the RTS decreased 1.31% to 1,034.98.

“National securities fell in line with sales on global floors. Worsening geopolitical tensions between North Korea and the U.S. significantly hurt investor risk appetite,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

North Korea said it was considering plans for a missile strike on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam followed by U.S. President Donald Trump's comments that any North Korean threat would be met with fire and fury and a boast about the American nuclear arsenal.

“Let’s hope that this (military confrontation between North Korea and the U.S.) will not happen, but the growing risks already led to share sales. This news flow led to sales in the whole of the Asian region, and after that the sales spilt over to the European floors,” Vasily Oleinik, an expert at investment company Finam, said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that some Russian shares had been overheated, specifically Sberbank which looked weaker than the market and lost 1.34% to 173.40 rubles.

He also said that shares of internet giant Yandex gained 2.40% to 1,835.50 rubles after the company and Sberbank announced creation of a 60 billion ruble e-commerce joint venture.

Kirsanova said that shares of precious metals producer Polymetal International were among the gain leaders to grow 3.92% to 731.80 rubles as geopolitical risks prompted interest in gold as a defensive asset.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.34	173.40	8.523
Gazprom	-0.83	118.68	2.408
ALROSA	+1.13	83.32	1.684
Norilsk Nickel	+0.75	9269.00	1.439
Lukoil	-1.18	2939.00	1.193

(59.9886 rubles – U.S. $1)

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