Russian stocks close mixed amid low oil, weak ruble

MOSCOW, Jun 20 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Tuesday amid oil prices falling to their lowest in seven months and a depreciated ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.44% to 1,857.96 and the RTS dropped 1.73% to 981.03.

“After the morning growth the dollar-denominated RTS index went into the negative territory under the weight of the currency factor, while the MICEX index ignored the fall in oil prices and remained in the positive territory,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said. The ruble continued falling on Tuesday, having renewed three-month record lows against the U.S. dollar.

The Brent oil price lost almost 3% on Tuesday having fallen below U.S. $46 per barrel.

Finam expert Vasily Oleinik said “the Russian stock market remains very weak and any worsening of moods on foreign floors will lead to new sales of Russian shares.”

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that coal and metals companies were among growth leaders on the back of the ruble’s depreciation. Metals and mining company Mechel’s common shares and preferred shares gained 3.53% and 4.1%, respectively, steel producer Severstal rose 2.89%, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) gained 0.5%, and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) grew 1.3%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.07	144.90	8.611
Gazprom	+0.09	117.44	3.530
Rosneft	+1.61	316.00	1.998
Norilsk Nickel	+0.74	8311.00	1.771
Lukoil	-0.38	2769.00	1.701

(57.9585 rubles – U.S. $1)

End