Russian stocks close mixed on ruble rise, profit taking

MOSCOW, Aug 1 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market ended Monday’s trade mixed as the ruble strengthened, while investors took profits, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.52% to 2,180.09 and the RTS increased 0.85% to 1,138.79.

“The Russian stock market closed with mixed dynamics on Monday. The market still shows high volatility. The MOEX Russia Index corrected downwards, while the U.S. dollar–denominated RTS Index grew as the ruble strengthened to 60.5 rubles per U.S. dollar,” Yevgeny Linchik, head of the stock managing department at managing company Pervaya, said.

The external background was mixed for the Russian market as well, as the Asian floors rose, while the Western floors did not move in unison as business activity data in the manufacturing sector was weak. The Brent oil price also fell by over 4% on worries about a possible slowdown of the oil demand growth, Linchik said.

“The Russian stock market stayed in the red zone suffering from the ruble dynamics and from profit taking in many issuers,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Oil major Lukoil gained 1.39% to 3,931 rubles on the news that the net profit jumped to 520.5 billion rubles in January–June from 145.6 billion rubles in the same period of 2021, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards, Kozhukhova said.

Otkritie Research’s leading analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the shares of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) increased by 5.02% and of Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) gained 1.31% after the Industry and Trade Ministry announced support measures for the steel producers, including an adjustment of an excise on liquid steel and revision of the mineral extraction tax (MET) formula to take into account the situation at each company, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.46	127.34	5.731
Lukoil	+1.39	3931.00	3.999
Gazprom	-1.67	192.00	2.525
MMK	+5.02	27.80	1.997
Norilsk Nickel	-3.47	15590.00	1.968

(61.3101 rubles – U.S. $1)

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