Russian stocks close mixed on China’s economic woes, low oil price

MOSCOW, Dec 1 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Tuesday as fears of worsening economic situation became stronger after releases of weak China’s macroeconomic statistics, which also pushed oil prices down, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.11% to 1,772.97 and the RTS decreased 0.94% to 839.14.

“The external background for the Russian stock market was moderately negative today due to a continuous fall of oil prices. The commodity prices were undermined by Chinese business activity indices in production…and concerns about a possible further decrease of the Chinese yuan after it has been included into the SDR basket,” Vasily Tanurkov, a deputy head of investment company Veles Capital’s department for stock market analysis, said.

Official China’s PMI Manufacturing turned out to be lower than expected, and Caixin PMI Manufacturing remained below a 50 point mark, which indicates further slowdown of the country’s economy, Tanurkov said.

The Brent oil price fell 0.45% to U.S. $44.41 per barrel as of 6.21 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange. The corresponding decrease of the ruble supported the MICEX index close to zero, Tanurkov added.

“The Russian stock market was hurt by the Chinese statistic, which indicates a further worsening of the economic situation,” Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) gained 2.06% to 3.46 rubles as the company’s net profit soared to $156.5 million in January–September from $10.1 million in the same period of 2014.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.55	101.30	10.093
Gazprom	-0.42	137.42	3.512
Norilsk Nickel	+1.50	9054.00	2.888
Lukoil	+0.98	2559.00	1.658
Rosneft	-0.11	264.70	1.257

(66.7370 rubles – U.S. $1)

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