Russian stocks close mixed on unfavorable news flow, ruble dynamics

MOSCOW, Sep 30 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Friday as the news flow was unfavorable for investors, while the ruble dynamics allowed the MOEX Russia Index to edge up and undermined the RTS Index, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.18% to 1,957.31 and the RTS decreased 1.54% to 1,055.72.

“The national stock market had a very nervous trading session. The news from Europe about preparations of another sanction package acted as a background. Besides that, the euro and the U.S. dollar were under the pressure because of concerns that sanctions may be slapped on the National Clearing Center or Russia’s operations in these currencies could be banned altogether,” Otkritie Research’s analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Finam analyst Alexander Kovalyov said that investors continued sales on Friday because of accession of new territories into Russia, while reports that the E.U. countries had reached a preliminary agreement on new anti-Russian sanctions added some negative sentiment.

“The Russian stock market finished the Friday trade without unified dynamics as it was under the impact of the ruble’s volatility, movements in some securities, and geopolitics,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index were under the pressure and were unable to feel the positive impact from the approval of record dividends by gas giant Gazprom because geopolitical risks grew. Heads of the U.N. and NATO are to give speeches today, and Ukraine filed a bid to join NATO through an accelerated procedure, she said.

Kochetkov also said that the shares of Gazprom lost 4.57% to 216.11 rubles in spite of the record dividends as investors are concerned about the future dividends in the light of probable pricing restrictions on exports to Europe and in light of the final closure of the Nord Stream pipelines’ topic.

Freedom Finance Global’s analyst Vladimir Chernov said that the shares of fertilizer producer PhosAgro plunged by 9.42% to 6,260 rubles after a dividend cut-off.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-4.57	216.11	52.914
Sberbank	-1.55	108.70	13.663
Yandex	+1.22	1863.00	3.925
Lukoil	+0.63	3907.00	3.190
Norilsk Nickel	-0.36	12294.00	2.415

(57.4130 rubles – U.S. $1)

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