Russian stocks close mixed amid weak ruble, lower oil

MOSCOW, May 18 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday on the back of the ruble’s depreciation, falling oil prices and a lack of growth drivers, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.43% to 1,917.24 and the RTS decreased 0.53% to 926.82.

“A substantial fall of the dollar-denominated RTS index took place as a result of a significant depreciation of the ruble,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said. The foreign background was neutral, the analyst said.

The MICEX index took attempts to restore earlier suffered losses, Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said.

Market participants were not inclined to make purchases amid oil price correction, InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

Brent oil price decreased being under pressure by the released data on the U.S. oil commercial reserves, which grew by 1.31 million barrels in a week despite a forecast of a decline by 3.5 million barrels, Rogova said.

Oil company Bashneft was among growth leaders, having increased by 4.69% after President Vladimir Putin allowed the government to sell the entire state stake in the company, Kovalyov said.

Fertilizer producer Uralkali grew 4.36% on announced plans to make a buyback of 4% of capital.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.33	123.12	6.143
Gazprom	-0.96	152.10	3.520
Lukoil	+1.33	2707.00	2.811
Norilsk Nickel	+1.85	9095.00	1.852
Surgutneftegas pref	+0.86	42.75	1.446

(64.5138 rubles – U.S. $1)

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