Russia stocks close down on investor wariness ahead of Fed meeting

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed lower in thin trading on Monday due to declining European indices and investor caution ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, analysts said.

The MICEX decreased 0.43% to 2,119.09 and the RTS fell 0.16% to 1,150.39.

Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said investors are unlikely to buy risky assets ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meeting.

“Its tone may be aggressive enough to persuade the markets in the possibility of a forthcoming rate hike,” she said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker said that exporters were among the Russian market outsiders due to a strengthening ruble with Gazprom being the only exclusion. The gas major gained 0.28% to 138.5 rubles amid expectations of profit growth on rising exports to non-CIS states.

Multi-industry holding Sistema, oil company Bashneft and fertilizer producer PhosAgro were the top performers. Their shares rose 2.6%, 2.03% and 0.86% to 23.1 rubles, 3,500 rubles and 2,570 rubles respectively.

Kochetkov forecast a dull week as the U.S. stock exchanges are closed for the President’s Day on Monday, and Russia will celebrate Defenders of Fatherland Day on February 23.

“At the weekend, global rating agency Moody’s upgraded Russia’s sovereign rating to Stable from Negative, but this news does not seem to influence market sentiment much,” he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.03%	165.44	4.461
Gazprom	+0.28%	138.50	3.434
Rosneft	-1.41%	349.00	2.026
Norilsk Nickel	-1.39%	9,585.00	1.883
Lukoil	-0.58%	3,180.00	1.517

(57.6342 rubles – U.S. $1)

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