Russian stocks close mixed on absence of drivers

MOSCOW, Oct 28 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks shrugged off central bank’s decision to maintain the key rate at 10%, and closed mixed on Friday as the oil price’s contraction pushed the ruble down, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.10% to 1,981.76 and the RTS decreased 0.04% to 992.23.

“Russian stocks were in the consolidation regime during the last trading day of the week. The Bank of Russia’s meeting was ignored, as was expected, and an idealess trade did not provide any significant movements of benchmarks in any direction,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at Insta-Forex, said.

Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said that the U.S. dollar-denominated RTS index contracted due to a fall of the ruble, while the external background provided no support to Russian stocks after China’s CSI 300 index fell by 0.17% and as the pan-European Stoxx 600 was also in the red zone during the day.

The Brent oil price fell 1.102% to U.S. $49.92 per barrel as of 6.42 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“Demand for risky assets is low in the region because of good macro statistics that has been published recently, which may prompt toughening of the rhetoric or even of the monetary policy of E.U. central banks,” Nigmatullin said.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that expectations of the next OPEC meeting in Vienna only add to uncertainty, as disputes between participants of a September agreement to cut the organization’s joint production to 32.5 million barrels a day over production quotas may lead to the signing of only a formal agreement with which no one will comply with.

“The activity of investors was very low prior to a two-day meeting of representatives of OPEC and other oil-producing countries regarding the possible freeze of output,” which will end on Saturday,” Alexander Kostyukov, an analyst at investment company Veles Capital, said.

Manzhos said that one of the most noticeable movements on the local market was an increase in common and preferred shares of oil company Bashneft, which grew by 4.43% and 1.84%, respectively, after oil major Rosneft asked the Federal Antimonopoly Service to raise its stake in Bashneft to 100%.

The common shares of power utility Russian Grids went up 3.02% following publication of strong financial results for January–September, Manzhos said.

The shares of agricultural holding Razgulay Group plunged 30.47% as the company failed to reach an out-of-court deal with its major creditor Rusagro, which means a very high chance of bankruptcy, Manzhos added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.07	149.2	3.343
Bashneft	+4.43	3264.00	1.352
Gazprom	-0.03	135.00	1.344
Russian Grids	+3.02	0.965	1.114
Lukoil	+0.16	3104.00	0.901

(63.0399 rubles – U.S. $1)

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