Russian stock market decreases on falling oil price

MOSCOW, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Wednesday over falling oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.23% to 2,262.07 and the RTS decreased 2.19% to 936.95.

“The main negative factor for the market was the oil price collapse, caused, most likely, by the growth of its commercial reserves in the U.S. by 1.55 million barrels, which exceeded analysts' expectations,” Freedom Finance Global’s Senior Analyst Natalya Milchakova said.

The Brent oil price fell 4.85% to U.S. $73.69 per barrel in the evening, which became a reason to be concerned about considerable reduction of budget revenues from oil and gas, the analyst added.

She also said that the market was put under pressure by the news that the Finance Ministry intends to oblige almost all major Russian businesses, with the exception of oil, gas and coal companies, to pay a one-time tax fee to the budget.

Senior trader at managing company Alfa-Capital Vladislav Silayev said that the rally in the U.S. dollar and the fall in oil prices became a reason for selling on the Russian market.

The shares of oil, gas and financial companies showed the worst performance, the analyst said. The list of outsiders was headed by Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), he added.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Wednesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.71	176	12.619
Polyus	+0.41	9239	4.574
Gazprom	-1.15	161.69	3.556
Polymetal	+0.09	550	2.534
Lukoil	-0.76	4077	1.858

(75.1927 rubles – U.S. $1)

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