Russian stocks close mixed, as OPEC puts oil prices under pressure

MOSCOW, Jun 5 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Friday with the MICEX rising supported by non-oil exporters and the dollar-denominated RTS closing flat depressed by the ruble weakening and OPEC’s decision to maintain oil production quotas, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.85% to 1,652.07 and the RTS was flat at 922.67.

“The Russian indices closed mixed, because the OPEC kept oil production quotas flat,” Mikhail Krylov, director of the Golden Hills-Kapital’s research department, said.

Russian non-oil stocks, which rose on the ruble weakening against the dollar, included metals giant Norilsk Nickel, which rose 2.50% to 9,989 rubles, steel maker Severstal, which added 1.68% to 618.1 rubles and fertilizer producer Acron, which increased 1.43% to 2,262 rubles, Alexander Kostyukov, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

Debt-ridden metals giant Mechel rose 6.26% to 71 rubles, as CEO of its creditor VTB Bank said that the company can postpone the scheduled tranches of debt repayment to 2018-2019 from 2015-2017.

Grocery chain Dixy Group fell 2.67% to 365 rubles after reporting a net loss of 140.1 million rubles in January–March after a net profit of 667 million rubles in the same period of 2014, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.90	70.61	5.481
VTB	+0.02	0.08107	2.277
Gazprom	+1.57	142.40	3.783
Norilsk Nickel	+2.50	9986.00	3.209
Lukoil	+1.78	2570.00	2.235

(54.9908 rubles – U.S. $1)

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