Russian stocks close mixed on Friday profit taking

MOSCOW, Dec 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Friday because of a lack of drivers and of profit taking before the weekend, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.30% to 2,177.85 and the RTS increased 0.23% to 1,099.12.

“The Russian stock market was in the red zone today taking into account the slow news flow and the pre-holiday season. We see the market trying to take profit every Friday week after week because they don’t trust the news flow and expect bad news to break,” Finam analyst Zarina Saidova said.

Dmitry Postolenko, head of managing company Pervaya’s department for management of the fixed income securities, said that the situation for the market has not changed since Thursday.

“The Russian markets are waiting for the new growth drivers just like the Western floors. U.S. inflation could become one of these drivers,” Postolenko said.

Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov said that the shares of oil company Tatneft gained 1.33% to 365.80 rubles in response to the company’s plans to raise oil production in the republic of Tatarstan by 4.3% to 28.7 million tonnes in 2022.

The shares of real estate developer PIK Group rose by 1.51% to 593.30 rubles on a statement by central bank’s representative Ruslan Bulatov that the regulator supported a gradual folding of the government’s cheap mortgage program, Chernov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.20	140.20	3.633
ALROSA	-5.11	61.29	2.172
Gazprom	+0.18	163.29	1.130
Norilsk Nickel	+0.43	14950.00	1.098
Polyus	+0.51	7440.00	0.993

(62.5722 rubles – U.S. $1)

End