Russian stocks close flat after idealess session, on solid oil price

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with marginal changes on Friday because the morning downbeat mood from statements by the European Central Bank (ECB) president was later erased by a slight increase in oil futures, analysts said.

The MICEX grew 0.03% to 1,957.70, and the RTS fell 0.11% to 986.37.

“There was a selloff wave at the first hours of trade on the local (Russian) market, connected with a deterioration of the external background. Nevertheless, a noticeable intraday increase of the price of futures for the Brent blend allowed the MICEX and the RTS indices to fully recover after their recent losses,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

At the opening of the session in Russia, world traders were disappointed with a Thursday’s statement by ECB President Mario Draghi. He announced pessimistic inflation and economic growth forecasts, analysts said.

The trading session was virtually idealess, which was reflected in low trading volumes, Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Lukoil was the growth leader because it is expected to approve a new dividend policy soon. The recent shares acquisitions by executives also support the trend, Manzhos said. Other oil companies were also in the green zone due to growing oil prices, Kochetkov said.

Mechel has reset its long-term highs, rising 9.3% to 116.6 rubles on the back of a coking coal price increase, Manzhos said.

Kochetkov said that metals producers were declining due to a strengthening of the ruble.

Magnit was sliding after releasing a lackluster financial performance report for January–September, he said.

Unipro, earlier known as E.ON Russia, was also falling as losses from a Berezovskaya GRES power plant accident made its January–September net profit halve, Kochetkov said. Unipro lost 0.33% to 2.702 rubles.

Among second-tier securities, agricultural producer Razgulay was soaring 39.68% and closed at 8.66 rubles on investors’ hopes that the holding will be able to solve conflicts with creditors out of courts and will be safe from bankruptcy.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Friday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.11	148.42	3.457
Gazprom	+0.18	134.96	2.088
Magnit	-0.75	10525.00	1.490
Lukoil	+1.1	3071.00	1.106
Moscow Exchange	-2.57	116.00	1.095

(62.4194 rubles – U.S. $1)

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