Russian stocks close mixed after oil price fall on US statistics

MOSCOW, Jul 27 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Wednesday, because oil prices fell after U.S. statistics of oil reserves and production was released and put under pressure the ruble and the RTS, and the MICEX traded flat, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.01% to 1,938.65 and the RTS decreased 0.33% to 921.67.

The fall of the dollar-denominated RTS was caused by a ruble fall against the U.S. dollar. The ruble weakened to above 66 against the dollar due to lower oil prices, Andrei Lyushin, Locko-Bank’s deputy CEO said.

“The tax period came to an end, and there are no growth drivers for the ruble, and it will follow oil,” he said.

Andrei Dirgin, head of the analytical department at Alfa-Forex, said that Russian stocks traded flat on the back of no significant drivers.

Promsvyazbank senior analyst Ilya Frolov said, “The Russian stock market lagged behind other emerging markets due to an accelerated fall in oil prices, because investors were taking profits after negative statistics of U.S. oil and oil product reserves was published and Brent price fell below U.S. $44 per barrel.”

Vasily Tanurkov, deputy director for stock market management at Veles Capital, said, “The situation on the market worsened significantly after data on U.S. oil reserves was published. U.S. crude oil reserves rose by 1.67 million barrels last week, which is worse than expected, moreover, oil production rose by 21,000 barrels per day for the third week in a row.”

Coal producer Raspadskaya rose 15.06% to 33.7 rubles after publishing a jump in its January–June net profit to 7.185 billion rubles, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Power producer territorial Generating Company-1 (TGC-1) increased 1.9% to 0.0064 rubles as its RAS net profit rose 38.2% on the year in January–June.

Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) fell 2.92% to 90.8 rubles after a report that its net profit plunged 49.8% on the year in January–June, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Mobile operator MegaFon, whose IFRS net profit decreased 44.9% in April–June, fell 0.93% to 692 rubles.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said oil producer Bashneft, which increased 1.53% to 2,814 rubles, was backed by the news concerning privatization of the company, while the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) may take part in the privatization and some oil companies have filed applications to participate.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.85	136.90	8.528
Gazprom	-0.85	139.50	3.604
Magnit	-4.34	10020.00	2.718
Lukoil	+0.55	2836.50	1.386
Norilsk Nickel	+1.14	9445.00	1.071

(65.7408 rubles – U.S. $1)

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