Russian stocks close mixed on falling oil, ECB decisions

MOSCOW, Dec 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday as low oil prices resulted in a plunge of the ruble, which dragged the RTS index down and supported the MICEX index above zero, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.97% to 1,787.23 and the RTS decreased 0.84% to 826.96.

The fall of the Brent oil price to $42.29 late on Wednesday from U.S. $44.44 on Tuesday has weighed upon the ruble since the beginning of trade, and dragged the RTS index down, Anton Kravchenko, a portfolio manager at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

“The external background provides no strong signals. The oil is restoring very slowly …and the RTS falls following the ruble weakening,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex group of companies, said.

Pavel Salas, the general director for Russia and CIS at brokerage company eToro, said.

ECB’s decision to cut the deposit rate and to maintain its asset buyback program, while the market expected it to cut the volume, also weighted on the market as the ruble lost 2.29 rubles against the euro to 73.9 rubles as of 6.10 p.m. Moscow time.

Artyom Zvyagilsky, an analyst at MFX Broker, said that the MICEX index was also supported by a rising Russia’s Services purchasing managers’ index, while the Composite PMI stood at 50.5, which indicates that the economy’s contraction is coming to an end.

National flag carrier Aeroflot lost 1.89% as investors reacted to Tuesday’s news that the Federal Antimonopoly Service is dissatisfied with its pricing policy after second biggest airline by traffic Transaero left the market.

Common and preferred shares of metals and mining group Mechel grew 1.22% and 0.68%, respectively, still supported by Wednesday’s news that the company and one of its biggest creditors, Sberbank, are close to amicable agreements on bank’s suits totaling U.S. $445 million and 3.3 billion rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.46	104.00	9.955
Gazprom	+2.30	140.00	5.829
Norilsk Nickel	+1.95	9113.00	3.127
Magnit	+0.58	12270.00	2.105
Lukoil	+0.93	2559.00	1.707

(66.7402 rubles – U.S. $1)

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