Russian stocks close mixed on no strong drivers, ruble fall

MOSCOW, Nov 23 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday as the fall of the ruble propelled the ruble-denominated MICEX index to a new all-time high and pushed the U.S. dollar–denominated RTS index down, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.95% to 2,085.75 and the RTS edged up only 0.01% to 1,016.95.

Yevgeny Loktyukhov, head of Promsvyazbank’s stock market research department, said that the MICEX was supported by a rapid weakening of the ruble.

“The MICEX index is rising today hitting new all-time highs helped by a relative stability of oil and a sharp weakening of the ruble,” he said.

Irina Rogova, an analyst at the Forex Club group of companies, said that the ruble was under pressure from the oil prices that stopped growing and from the U.S. dollar strengthening. The current tax period in Russia is coming to an end, and exporting companies have already reserves of ruble liquidity and reduced their demand for the currency, Rogova said.

“There were no noticeable reasons for the growth of the MICEX index. The higher quotes of shares of Russian companies was more likely of an inertial character,” Anastasiya Sosnova, a leading analyst at Bank Rossiysky Capital, said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that shares of power producer Enel Russia grew 2.21% to 0.923 rubles on expectations of an about 8.5% dividend yield growth.

Shares of power holding Inter RAO looked weaker than the market and lost 1.32% to 3.99 rubles, which was expected after an about 300% jump since the beginning of 2016, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.15	155.23	5.637
Gazprom	-0.34	149.49	2.891
Lukoil	+2.02	3175.00	1.575
Norilsk Nickel	+2.07	10490.00	1.471
Moscow Exchange	+1.99	119.00	1.312

(63.6282 rubles – U.S. $1)

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