Russian stocks close almost flat on lack of negative drivers

MOSCOW, Nov 19 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks ended Monday without changes as there were no negative drivers to prompt the local players to sell, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.05% to 2,373.78 and the RTS increased 0.07% to 1,135.71.

“On Monday, the Russian stock market traded neutrally…The formal reasons for that may have come with the Brent oil price stabilizing in the range of U.S. $66–67 per barrel, and with a lack of negative news coming from external sources,” Anastasia Sosnova, Freedom Finance’s analyst, said.

Promsvyazbank senior analyst Bogdan Zvarich said the Russian stock market spent the major part of the day in the green zone but got closer to zero in the evening as the U.S. stock indices started their day with a fall “with the Dow Jones and S&P500 losing 0.5% in the first 30 minutes of trade.”

Vasily Oleinik, investment company Finam analyst, said that investors should not expect any strong drivers to support purchases any time soon. Uncertainty around the Brexit may worsen the mood of investors closer to the end of the week, Italy and the possibility of the European Commission fining the country remains a risk factor, and the U.S.–China trade war is still developing, he said.

Otkritie Broker’s analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that shares of Internet giant Yandex gained 0.44% as the company announced sales of new gadgets with installed voice assistant Alisa and improved search engine’s algorithms.

Gas giant Gazprom rose 0.61% after Greece said it was interested in joining the TurkStream natural gas pipeline project, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.64	197.99	10.062
Lukoil	+0.45	4845.50	2.898
Gazprom	+0.61	154.10	2.890
Rosneft	+0.77	424.10	1.939
ALROSA	+0.61	100.51	1.373

(65.9931 rubles – U.S. $1)

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