Russian stocks close mixed amid further weakening of ruble

MOSCOW, Aug 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed the session mixed on Tuesday on the continuing weakening of the ruble despite the central bank’s extraordinary hike in the key rate, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.50% to 3,115.25 and the RTS increased 0.08% to 1,010.19.

“The Russian stock market finished the day mixed… Negative dynamics of the RTS index were linked to the remaining weakness of the ruble despite the central bank’s extraordinary key rate hike,” Director of the stock market department at managing company Pervaya Anton Kravchenko said.

The central bank raised the key rate to 12% annually from 8.5%.

The MOEX Russia Index managed to stay within its medium-term upward trend, Kravchenko added.

He also said that the telecommunication sector was among the market’s leaders as it is a sort of the local safety asset.

The U.S. stock market demonstrated a rise of its three major indices by the end of the Russian trading session’s closing, the Brent oil price lost some 1%, but is still high at around U.S. $85 per barrel, Kravchenko said.

Senior Trader at managing company Alfa-Capital Vladislav Silayev said that the ruble’s weakening supported the exporters.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.21	261	13.786
Lukoil	+0.91	6183	12.767
Gazprom	-0.55	176.11	11.420
Surgutneftegas, prefs	+2.5	49.69	7.613
RussNeft	+4.2	195.9	6.477

(101.0399 rubles – U.S. $1)

End