Russian stocks almost flat on mixed foreign background

MOSCOW, Feb 4 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks remained almost flat on Monday as the market started the day with an increase and later erased all the gains following falling oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.07% to 2,523.52 and the RTS decreased 0.01% to 1,211.15.

“The external background was mixed. The Chinese bourses were closed due to celebrations of the Chinese New Year. The European investors decided to hold off their purchases because of Brexit problems and technical recession in Italy…While the U.S. investors were pleased with the corporate reports that turned out to not be as pessimistic as initially expected,” Anastasia Sosnova, Freedom Finance’s analyst, said.

But prospects of the MOEX Russia index are still restricted by the existing sanction risks. Softening of the sanctions against tycoon Oleg Deripaska does not mean an automatic softening of the sanctions against Russia. The U.S. Congress may resume discussions of the sanctions after it solves the shutdown problems, Sosnova said.

“In the first half of the trading session, the Russian market showed a noticeable increase supported by a gradual increase in oil prices and positive dynamics of Western bourses…In the second half of the day however, the external background worsened steadily. Oil prices switched into an active downward correction, and the global stock floors mainly switched into the red zone. The Russian market was unable to buck the negative trend,” Dmitry Babin, an analyst at BCS Broker, said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, Veles Capital’s analyst, said that the fact that both the MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index finished their trading sessions with slight contractions from their intra-day highest points is a worrying factor for short-term “bull” players as it demonstrates market uncertainty that market growth is imminent.

Andrei Kochetkov, Otkritie Broker’s analyst, said the market still saw some support from the shares of aluminum giant UC RUSAL and global depositary receipts of multi-industry holding En+ Group that grew 4.83% and 5.14%, respectively, after index provider MSCI announced a possible return of the shares to the MSCI Russia index.

Shares of Russia’s second largest bank VTB grew 1.13% on expectations of good dividends and thanks to a statement of the bank’s CEO Andrei Kostin that he did not expect the U.S. to hit Russia’s largest banks with tough sanctions, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.37	215.50	8.834
Lukoil	+0.57	5350.00	2.628
Gazprom	-0.08	163.20	1.878
Rosneft	-0.23	411.00	1.390
Severstal	+1.40	1029.00	1.130

(65.6601 rubles – U.S. $1)

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