Russian stocks close mixed on ruble’s appreciation, neutral environ

MOSCOW, Sep 14 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday on strengthening of the ruble and the lack of clear signals from foreign markets, analysts said.

The MICEX was flat at 2,004.48 and the RTS increased 0.21% to 970.56.

“To a great extend the dynamics (the Russian stock indices) resulted from a close to neutral foreign background,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 gained less than 0.1% during the day, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.3% after the start of trading in the U.S., he said.

The ruble strengthened thanks to a statement by Deputy Finance Minister Maxim Oreshkin that inflation may slow down to 5.7% in 2016, Nigmatullin said.

Investors did not show significant activity during the session preferring to wait for clearer external signals, Yevgeny Loktyukhov, head of the capital market analysis department at Promsvyazbank, said.

“The MICEX index is still a hostage of global markets’ mood. We still note that there are risks of testing 2,000 points with a possible pullback to 1,975–1,980 points if unfavorable conditions on global markets remain,” he said.

Food retailer Dixy fell 3.12% after the company released weak operating results for August, Nigmatullin said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.71	150.86	5.827
Gazprom	+0.65	139.35	3.170
Lukoil	+0.54	3054.00	1.663
Rosneft	+0.89	367.15	1.224
Norilsk Nickel	-2.09	9546.00	1.169

(64.8102 rubles – U.S. $1)

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