Greek woes, weak ruble, Brent cause Russian stock market fall

MOSCOW, Jul 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stocks fell on Monday depressed by a drop in the Brent oil price and a falling ruble in light of Greek woes and the absence of growth drivers, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.64% to 1,621.27 and the RTS decreased 1.82% to 902.88.

“Sales on the Russian stock market, which continued after Friday (July 3) due to cheapening oil and negative external background, do not cause much surprise,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Finam, said.

The Brent oil prices fell to below U.S. $58.5 per barrel by the end of the trading session due to a range of reasons, including a rise in U.S. oil reserves, fruitful negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, increased oil output in OPEC countries, as well as Greek woes which sped up the oil price fall, Nigmatullin said.

The ruble fell above 56.5 against the U.S. dollar on the back of the troubles in the euro zone and weak oil and also depressed the dollar-denominated RTS, he also said.

Strengthening of the national currency is also prevented by interventions of the central bank, which continues $200 million daily purchases of currency despite the current volatility on the financial market, Nigmatullin said.

“Generally, there are still no growth factors and such situation (falling oil and ruble) will remain at least until announcement of results of the E.U. summit on Greece tomorrow (Tuesday),” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

The Russian stock market is likely to fall during several coming days and may rebound only if the situation concerning Greece clears up and the country gets financial aid, the analyst said.

Bank UralSib rose 12.13% after Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service cleared Rossium, a company of businessman Roman Avdeyev, to acquire an 85.98% voting stake in Financial Corporation Uralsib, its major shareholder.

National top lender Sberbank fell 3.14% on the back of the ruble devaluation.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.14	68.45	8.574
Gazprom	-0.92	143.00	2.688
VTB	-1.77	0.0745	1.591
Norilsk Nickel	+0.15	9277.00	1.513
Lukoil	+1.43	2460.00	1.385

(55.6049 rubles – U.S. $1)

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