Russian stocks close mixed as market remains under pressure

MOSCOW, Oct 12 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Wednesday as the MOEX Russia Index edged up slightly by inertia, while the RTS Index fell under the pressure of geopolitics, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.11% to 1,951.65 and the RTS decreased 1.05% to 954.53.

“The Russian stock market tried to grow today by inertia after deep Monday’s sales. The majority of sectors were in the green zone,” Promsvyazbank senior analyst Vladimir Lyashchuk said.

But correctional growth is slowing down, and the market may try to take profit if no positive news emerge. The external background may ensure that as the oil prices and the stock exchange indices continue their downward trends, Lyashchuk said.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, said that the market was under the pressure of great geopolitical uncertainty.

Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov said that the shares of independent gas producer Novatek gained 0.81% to 973.60 rubles in response to the January–September report which showed a 4% increase in hydrocarbon production in July–September and a 1.7% increase of output in January–September.

The shares of mobile operator MTS lost 3.38% to 203 rubles after the Federal Antimonopoly Service had found the operator guilty of hiking tariffs and violating the antimonopoly legislation, Chernov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.48	106.13	6.420
Lukoil	-0.61	4144.50	3.111
Gazprom	-0.56	161.97	2.778
Yandex	+1.96	2046.00	1.570
Rosneft	+1.34	291.15	1.478

(63.6840 rubles – U.S. $1)

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