Pessimistic market mood over COVID-19 drags Russian stocks down

MOSCOW, Apr 1 (PRIME) -- The pessimistic mood on all foreign bourses prompted by constant fears for the global economy due to the COVID-19, dragged the Russian stocks down again on Wednesday, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.40% to 2,473.61 and the RTS decreased 2.63% to 987.75.

“The optimistic impact of Chinese statistics has depleted very fast, and the markets are again concerned with the dynamics of the COVID-19 in Europe and in the U.S.,” Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

“Still, no one is panicking now. The Federal Reserve System launched repo operations for foreign banks so that they have access to the U.S. dollar liquidity without the need to sell the treasuries. So, sales are not happening due to deficit of liquidity, there only is a significant volume of negative expectations for economies of Europe and the U.S.,” Kochetkov said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the background for the Russian market was negative, as prices for the Brent and WTI oil blends were mixed, the European bourses were deeply in the red as the business activity indices in the local industry confirmed the sector’s weakness by remaining below 50 points. The futures for the U.S. stock indices also contracted prior to the start of the U.S. trade session, she said.

Sergei Suverov, senior analyst at BCS Premier, said that the Russian stock market followed the global trends and fell as fears of the pandemic outweighed the bottomless monetary and fiscal stimuli of the authorities.

“U.S. President Donald Trump said that the amount of deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. may reach 240,000, which is an unprecedented number that obviously has an emotional impact on trade,” Suverov said.

Kochetkov said that the global depositary receipts (GDRs) of X5 Retail Group outperformed the market and grew 2.08% to 2,135 rubles as the company has adapted to delivery services during the self-isolation times better than any other large retail chain as it started development of its online sales way before the coronavirus problem emerged.

Kozhukhova said that the shares of precious metals producers Polyus and Polymetal International lost 5.64% to 10,038 rubles and 5.23% to 1,283.50 rubles as the gold prices fell back to U.S. $1,600 per ounce.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Wednesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.30	184.78	14.152
Lukoil	-0.86	4674.50	8.971
Gazprom	-0.74	180.06	7.270
Rosneft	+2.12	321.00	5.786
Surgutneftegas	+3.24	35.00	5.386

(77.7325 rubles – U.S. $1)

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