Russian stocks close lower on sales on foreign bourses

MOSCOW, Dec 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted on Friday undermined by a fall on the foreign bourses and the oil market, analysts said

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.72% to 3,723.27 and the RTS decreased 1.35% to 1,583.05.

“The energy market continued to exert pressure on the Russian shares, as the closest futures contract for the Brent oil lost about 2%,” Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.ru, said.

“The situation on the Western bourses acted as another negative factor. In Europe, the major indices lost up to 1.6%, while in the U.S., the Dow Jones and the S&P500 indices fell by 1.4% and 1%, respectively, after the first 30 minutes of the trade.”

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova also said that the external background for the Russian market was negative taking into account the sales on the bourses of the U.S., the E.U., and in oil.

“The geopolitical factor is still the most important for the Russian stock market and the ruble, but there is a lull in this sphere now, so the national assets are following the external background,” Kozhukhova said.

Maxim Kondratyev, senior portfolio manager at Sber Asset Management, said that an unexpected increase of the key rate by the Bank of England and worsening of the epidemiologic situation in the world also contributed to the sales on the Russian market. At the same time, the market reacted calmly to the expected Russian central bank’s increase of the key rate by 1 percentage point to 8.5%, he said.

Kozhukhova also said that gold producers Polyus and Polymetal International gained 4.53% and 2.34%, respectively, as the gold price tried to climb above U.S. $1,800 per ounce, while fertilizer producer PhosAgro lost 4.55% due to a dividend cut-off.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.08	295.66	30.388
Gazprom	-0.92	325.36	21.733
Lukoil	-1.50	6628.00	12.282
Polyus	+4.53	13432.00	6.918
Norilsk Nickel	+2.12	21762.00	6.562

(73.5708 rubles – U.S. $1)

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