Russia stocks down on oil, ruble fall, rate cut, sanctions, forecast

MOSCOW, Mar 13 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on Friday as the Brent price fell, the E.U. extended its sanctions by half a year, the central bank worsened its macroeconomic forecasts and the ruble weakened on the back of the key rate decrease by 1 percentage point to 14%, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 2.21% to 1,627.88 and the RTS decreased 2.99% to 833.57.

Alexander Yegorov, analyst at TeleTrade, said the market did not believe that the key rate cut by 1 percentage point to 14% will support the economy significantly.

The central bank also pushed prices down by raising its inflation forecast to 12–14% from 8% and predicting an economic slump at 3.5–4% after close to zero growth forecast for 2015. The central bank also forecasted a 24–36% import slump in 2015.

Sofya Kirsanova, analyst of Raiffeisen Capital, said the rate cut put pressure on the ruble, while the decision of the E.U. to prolong sanctions also contributed to the stock market fall.

The Brent price weakening below $67 per barrel was the main factor of the dollar-denominated MICEX weakening, Kirsanova said.

The E.U. Council prolonged sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian individuals blacklisted over the Ukrainian conflict until September 15, 2015.

The market expects positive statistics concerning U.S. drilling rigs, as Moody’s earlier forecasted that they are likely to decrease that will support oil prices and Russian stocks next week, Kirsanova said.

Lukoil fell 2.74% to 2,659 rubles on the background of the Brent price fall despite announced financial results: exporter’s net profit rose 80% to 371.8 billion rubles in 2014, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards.

State-run VTB Bank, whose net profit fell 99% to 800 million rubles in 2014, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards, decreased 1.83% to 0.06332 rubles on the back of the ruble weakening.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-4.12	67.87	10.497
Gazprom	-2.00	141.80	4.691
Lukoil	-2.74	2659.00	3.135
Norilsk Nickel	-3.26	10.380	2.352
Surgutneftegas	-0.85	40.16	1.471

(60.9595 rubles – U.S. $1)

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