Russian stocks close flat as oil price, ruble decrease

MOSCOW, Feb 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with marginal changes on Wednesday after a MICEX dip in the morning on the back of an oil price decrease and a later rebound on weakening of the ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.21% to 2,137.08 and the RTS decreased 0.12% to 1,172.59.

“A MICEX decrease in the morning was to a great extent due to an oil price fall and due to the results of yesterday’s speech by Head of the U.S. Federal Reserve System Janet Yellen in the Senate… But further on, a ruble weakening started, which supported Russian assets so they regained the losses,” Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said.

During the speech, Yellen said that is unreasonable to postpone an increase of the interest rate for a long time.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that prospects of improvement of Russia–U.S. relations are getting increasingly vague, which pressurizes the MICEX.

But a statement by presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov that the ruble strengthening and its influence on the economy can be one of the topics on the agenda of a meeting between Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in the evening was a factor which allowed the MICEX to rebound, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.49	163.5	11.243
Gazprom	-0.64	139.72	5.178
Rosneft	-2.66	360	2.860
Lukoil	-1.20	3211	2.503
Norilsk Nickel	+2.05	9940	2.445

(57.7388 rubles – U.S. $1)

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