Russia stocks fall on weak oil price, rumors of Ukraine conflict

MOSCOW, Mar 23 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Monday due to a low Brent price which failed to rebound to over U.S. $56.5 per barrel, market rumors about the Ukrainian conflict escalation and the possibility that Ukraine will halt gas imports from its eastern neighbor, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.58% to 1,602.85 and the RTS decreased 0.35% to 859.14.

“Talking about the current dynamics of the (ruble-denominated) MICEX, on the one hand the correction is caused by weakening oil prices, while on the other hand, by escalation of the conflict in the east of Ukraine,” Timur Nigmatullin, analyst at Finam, said.

The stock market also fell due to market rumors that Ukraine may stop importing gas from Russia, as it finds its pointless to buy gas at the same price as Europeans, Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex’ analytical department, said.

The fall of the dollar-denominated RTS was technically limited by the ruble strengthening against the dollar, as the national currency grew to above 59, its record high in 2015, due to increased demand during the mineral extraction tax paymentperiod, Nigmatullin said.

ALROSA fell 3.97% to 74.9 rubles as the company published weak financial results for 2014. The company received a 16.8 billion ruble net loss in 2014 against a 31.8 billion ruble net profit in 2013, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards.

Truck producer Kamaz rose 0.68% to 36.75 rubles as the government is considering measures to support the sector where sales are falling, Alexander Razuvayev, analyst at Alpari, said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.99	65.00	8.686
Gazprom	-1.02	134.61	4.081
Lukoil	-1.11	2679.90	2.454
Surgutneftegas	-0.02	42.59	1.832
Rosneft	+0.27	239.95	1.557

(60.0341 rubles – U.S. $1)

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