Russian stock market falls on increased geopolitical fears

MOSCOW, Oct 19 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Wednesday on increased geopolitical fears and the introduction of martial law on the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk republics, and the Zaporozhskaya and Khersonskaya regions, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 2.66% to 1,978.40 and the RTS decreased 2.84% to 1,010.24.

“Today's fall is linked to, on the one hand, the overdue technical corrections, on the other hand, there were fears of investors, caused by geopolitical factors. However, subsequently risks were not realized,” managing company Pervaya analyst Dmitry Postolenko said.

He also said that the decrease of the market may be limited to one day.

Promsvyazbank senior analyst Vladimir Lyashchuk said that the Russian stock market declined amid growing uncertainty and investors preferred to fix their positions after the market growth in the first half of the week.

The growth leaders included ordinary shares of Rosseti, which grew by 4.67%, on the news of the upcoming purchase of stakes from Rosseti-Siberia jointly with FGC UES, Freedom Finance Global’s Senior Analyst Natalya Milchakova said.

MMK fell by 3.81% on the publication of mixed operating results for July–September, Milchakova said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.5	111.43	9.106
Lukoil	-1.98	4156	3.542
Gazprom	+0.16	160.46	3.383
Yandex	-3.6	1897.2	2.337
Polyus	+1.08	5630	1.798

(61.7032 rubles – U.S. $1)

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