Russia stocks close flat on stable oil, ahead of Yellen speech

MOSCOW, Oct 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks remained close to flat on Tuesday as unchanged oil prices presupposed no strong movements while investors were waiting for a Wednesday speech of the U.S. Federal Reserve System Chairwoman Janet Yellen, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.05% to 2,076.81 and the RTS increased 0.11% to 1,129.90.

“Growth of the Russian stock market remained close to zero…The oil price acted as a brake pedal for the market. The Brent price corrected slightly after a fall to below $56 per barrel, but we think that the level is a local limit for the price,” Anastasia Sosnova, a leading analyst at Bank Rossiysky Capital, said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the oil market traded without major news. “Banks continue to cut their forecasts of oil prices as the current prices stimulate production outside of the OPEC+ deal and dilute discipline of compliance within the deal,” Kochetkov said.

Yevgenia Abramovich, head of the currency risks analysis department at Swiss brokerage house Dukascopy Bank SA, said that that the absence of movement at the Russian stock market was connected to expectations of results of the Wednesday speech by Yellen and the release of the U.S. labor market statistics for September by the ADP Research Institute.

Sosnova also said that expectations of Yellen’s speech will prevent any clear trends in the short term.

Kochetkov said that shares of national air carrier Aeroflot gained 0.68% to 186 rubles still trying to capitalize on problems in the Russian civil aviation.

Shares of mobile operator MegaFon plummeted 7.67% to 590 rubles after Sweden telecom giant Telia Company agreed to sell some 6% of its shares of Russian mobile operator MegaFon, or 38.5 million ordinary shares per 585 rubles, cutting its stake to about 19%, Kochetkov said.

Shares of titanium giant VSMPO-Avisma were among the leaders rising 2.37% to 16,860 rubles on expectations of high dividends for January–June, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
MegaFon	-7.67	590.00	6.076
Sberbank	-0.26	192.50	5.534
Gazprom	-0.92	120.78	3.263
Norilsk Nickel	+1.17	10253.00	2.985
Lukoil	+0.31	3054.00	1.192

(57.8134 rubles – U.S. $1)

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