Russian stock market mixed on profit taking, growing ruble

MOSCOW, Sep 11 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with mixed dynamics on Monday over profit taking and the strengthening ruble, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.65% to 3,122.37 and the RTS increased 2.08% to 1,033.5.

“The Russian stock market did not show unified dynamics on Monday by the end of the main trading because of profit taking on many shares and a strengthening of the ruble,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

According to Kozhukhova, a fundamental support for the Russian currency at the beginning of the week was provided by comments by Maxim Oreshkin, aide to President Vladimir Putin, who said that measures to limit the capital outflow were being worked out and predicted a more stable ruble exchange rate in the medium term.

The largest growth by the end of the session was shown by Territorial Generating Company-1 (TGC-1), at 2.11%, and X5 Retail Group securities, at 3.42%, which grew without obvious reasons, the analyst said.

Transneft's preferred shares jumped 2.92%, as the company said at the Eastern Economic Forum that it would maintain its plan for oil traffic in 2023 despite Russia's extension of its voluntary production cuts, Kozhukhova also said.

Otkritie Broker’s leading analyst for global Research Andrei Kochetkov said that the strengthening ruble dragged down exporters' shares.

The growth of volumes in major currency pairs since the middle of the last week may indicate the beginning of a voluntary increase of currency sales, as well as the arrival on the market of oil proceeds for July–August, when, in fact, the price cap set by the G7 states was broken, the analyst also said.

Director of the stock market department at managing company Pervaya Anton Kravchenko said that the MOEX Russia Index continued declining amid the ruble's growth against foreign currencies.

According to Kravchenko, the strengthening of the national currency may have a negative impact on exporters' earnings.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.23	256.27	9.442
Lukoil	-1.45	6529	7.137
Transneft pref	+2.92	142550	7.127
Sollers	+8.16	1346	4.181
VTB Bank	-1.67	0.026735	4.129

(97.9241 rubles – U.S. $1)

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