Russian stocks close flat on geopolitical tensions, oil price

MOSCOW, Feb 12 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks closed little changed on Friday as the shares dived in the morning due to the deepening geopolitical threats, while the oil prices helped the bourse regain some ground later in the day, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.37% to 3,427.08 and the RTS increased 0.05% to 1,461.99.

“The national market started falling in the first few minutes of trade. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a tough statement about Moscow’s reaction to possible E.U. restrictions, and the market and the ruble reacted negatively, naturally,” Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

“And there were reasons outside politics for the market to be pessimistic.”

Lavrov said that Moscow was ready to sever diplomatic relations with the E.U. if the union initiates it.

“At the end of trade, the MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index won back almost all positions they lost due to improvement of mood on the oil exchanges,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The European bourses rose as preliminarily calculated gross domestic product (GDP) in the U.K. outperformed expectations at 1.1% on the quarter in October–December 2020. The oil market provided strong support to the Russian shares as the Brent oil price grew by more than 0.5% as of the end of trade in Russia, she said.

Kochetkov also said that shares of metals companies were weak as many consumers started complaining about rapid growth of prices for metal products. The market is worried about possible involvement of the government in the situation, which may hurt performances of companies in the future. UC RUSAL lost 0.84% to 36.505 rubles, and Norilsk Nickel fell by 0.42% to 25,326 rubles.

Kozhukhova also said that Rosneft grew XX% to XX rubles as the company received a record 324 billion ruble net profit in October–December 2020, which helped the company receive a net profit in 2020 that would be used to pay dividends.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.26	264.00	18.042
Gazprom	+2.10	226.00	13.573
Lukoil	+1.14	5706.00	6.132
Rosneft	+1.48	504.15	5.277
Norilsk Nickel	-0.42	25326.00	5.173

(73.7579 rubles – U.S. $1)

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