Russia stocks fall in global trend on Yemen conflict, strong ruble

MOSCOW, Mar 26 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on Thursday following international markets that were hit by an escalating conflict in Yemen and as the ruble strengthening caught investors unawares, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 2.08% to 1,581.84 and the RTS decreased 1.52% to 868.62.

“The Russian indices followed the global stock market, but in the middle term the situation in Yemen may support the national market,” Natalya Samoilova, head of Golden Hills-Kapital’s analytical department, said.

Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and its allies struck Shi'ite Muslim rebels fighting to oust Yemen's president to check Iranian influence.

The RTS decrease was limited by the ruble strengthening, while the same factor put the MICEX under pressure, as the main mid-term idea for purchasing most Russian stocks was positive revaluation of ruble prices on the back of the ruble weakening,” Vitaly Manzhos, analyst at Nord-Capital, said.

However, the rising tension in the Middle East may deflect attention of Western countries away from the Ukrainian conflict supporting Russian stocks in future together with the oil price strengthening, according to the analyst.

M.Video rose 2.41% to 183 rubles as its net profit rose 40% to 8 billion rubles in 2014, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards.

Sberbank fell 3.01% to 62.85 rubles as its IFRS net profit decreased 20% to 290 billion rubles in 2014.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.01	62.85	9.492
Gazprom	-1.33	132.20	5.036
Lukoil	-2.75	2623.00	4.262
Rosneft	-2.31	237.10	1.909
Magnit	+1.27	11140.00	1.772

(57.3879 rubles – U.S. $1)

End