Overbought Russian stocks fall on Gazprom case, strong ruble

MOSCOW, Apr 22 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks showed a downward correction on Wednesday following a 2-day growth amid strengthening of the ruble, the E.U.’s antitrust case against Gazprom, and negative foreign background, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.91% to 1,677.56 and RTS decreased 0.37% to 1,004.00.

“Besides the ruble factor, in our view, a local overbuying of the market became the reason for the correction,” Veles Capital analyst Alexander Kostyukov said.

“The MICEX index is correcting amid negative foreign background – all key stock indices are falling in Europe,” Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said.

Gas giant Gazprom also acted as a major driver down after the European Commission has officially charged it with violation of the E.U. competition rules, the analyst said.

The gas giant fell 2.93% as the trading closed.

Brent oil price started regaining growth following Tuesday’s decline increasing 1.3% to U.S. $62.9 per barrel as of 6:30 p.m. Moscow time despite increased U.S. oil reserves, but market participants have not yet demonstrated a full-scale reaction to the data, Alfa-Forex analyst Andrei Dirgin said.

Flagship carrier Aeroflot, whose passenger traffic rose 15% on the year to 7.9 million people in January–March, closed 3.37% higher, Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofya Kirsanova said.

Retailer Magnit closed 0.59% lower after reporting solid financial results for January–March.

Power producer Enel Russia gained 1.13% after the company’s board of directors recommended paying 0.080731 rubles per share, or a total of 2.86 billion rubles, in dividends for 2014, which is 40% higher than dividends paid for 2013.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.78	73.90	10.659
Gazprom	-2.93	150.80	5.711
Norilsk Nickel	-1.03	9600.00	3.576
Lukoil	-3.25	2639.50	3.117
Magnit	-0.59	12135.00	2.348

(53.9728 rubles – U.S. $1)

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