Russia stocks fall on bad environ, waiting for Trump’s econ plan

MOSCOW, Jan 23 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks contracted on Monday as foreign floors fell, while investors abstained from opening long-term positions waiting for U.S. President Donald Trump to make decisions on his economic policy, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.64% to 2,146.09 and the RTS decreased 0.12% to 1,137.67.

“The external background has gotten worse in the evening. The European trading floors contributed the major negative impact. The composite Stoxx 600 index lost about 0.34% (as of 6.00 p.m. Moscow time), and the March future contract for the U.S. index S&P 500 lost 0.12% prior to the start of trade,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said.

“Besides the situation at foreign floors, the negative impact was provided by the fact that investors are not keen on opening long-term positions as they are waiting for Trump’s actions in his first days of the U.S. presidency. They are waiting for details of the economic program and decisions regarding the geopolitical agenda.”

Irina Rogova, an analyst at the Forex Club group of companies, said that contraction in Russian shares was also explained by a 0.983% oil price fall to U.S. $54.95 per barrel as of 6.18 p.m. Moscow time.

“Yesterday’s meeting of a committee for control over oil production cut did not impress the market, while the fact that the number of drilling rigs in the U.S. is growing obviously shows improvement of production. The market sees it as a threat to the possibility of the market to reach a balanced state quickly,” Rogova said.

Anrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the market has no definite ideas as hopes for a swift change in the external situation for the Russian economy are not being realized right now.

Kochetkov also said that the power production sector outperformed the market with Federal Grid Company for Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES), power holding Inter RAO, power utility Russian Grids and power producer Wholesale Generating Company-2 (WGC-2) rising 1.3%, 2.62%, 0.56%, and 1.04%, respectively.

Shares of steelmaker Severstal fell 1.23% as its subsidiary Severstal-metiz decided to sell Italian company Redaelli Tecna S.p.A. to Austria’s Teufelberger Wirerope GmbH, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.44	166.75	6.048
Gazprom	-1.07	148.10	3.329
RusHydro	-2.31	1.0615	2.419
Rosneft	+0.70	390.20	1.373
Lukoil	-0.11	3176.50	1.330

(59.6697 rubles – U.S. $1)

End