Russian stocks close mixed on higher Western bourses, stronger ruble

MOSCOW, Feb 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Wednesday as the rising Western bourses supported the market, while a firming ruble capped the MOEX index growth, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell by 0.12% to 3,543.80 and the RTS increased by 0.43% to 1,463.90.

“Our securities were supported by easing geopolitical risks and by the external background,” Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.ru, said.

“Dynamics of the Western bourses created a favorable background, as the European indices rose by 0.9% at the beginning of the evening, while the futures for the U.S. indices grew by 0.5% (as of 5.00 p.m. Moscow time).”

Strengthening of the ruble against the U.S. dollar acted as a restraining factor for the MOEX Russia Index, Zvarich said.

“Tuesday’s comment by the Russian president about the West’s response to Moscow’s proposals of security guarantees acts as a negative factor for our shares. (Vladimir) Putin said that the U.S. ignored Russia’s fundamental concerns,” Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment.

Alexander Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Research, noted some profit-taking after six trading sessions of growth.

“The financial market was dealt the heaviest blow as it remains the main target of the sanctions that the U.S. and the U.K announced. It would be wrong to say that the market fears the sanction talks, but no geopolitical improvements have happened.”

 TCS Group, Moscow Exchange, and Sberbank lost 2.16% to 5,542.50 rubles, 2.60% to 141.79 rubles, and 2.29% to 258.64 rubles, respectively, Kochetkov said.

The market mood in the IT sector was more positive with the global depositary receipts of Softline Holding gaining 10.31% to 430 rubles after on the news about expansion of the share buyback program to U.S. $100 million from $10 million, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.29	258.64	39.988
Gazprom	0.00	330.94	16.547
Yandex	-0.02	3723.40	7.685
Lukoil	+0.57	7016.00	5.961
Norilsk Nickel	-0.75	21784.00	5.121

(77.1302 rubles – U.S. $1)

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