Russian stocks contract in line with oil prices, world floors

MOSCOW, Aug 11 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks contracted on Friday mirroring a fall on international bourses due to tensions around North Korea and lower oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.79% to 1,944.83 and the RTS decreased 0.67% to 1,022.41.

“The situation on the global stock markets continues to worsen due to the strengthening of uncertainty around the conflict with North Korea. Following a 1.5–2% contraction of the U.S. stock indices, a flow of sales rocked the Asian region, where indices shrank by up to 2%,” Vasily Oleinik, an expert at investment company Finam, said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” for an immediate response should North Korea act “unwisely”, while the North Korean homeland security agency issued a fact sheet comprising tips for residents to prepare for a missile strike.

“The bearish movement gained momentum from … the external background and was exacerbated by a fall of the Brent oil price, which fell as low as to a weekly minimum of around U.S. $51.30 per barrel during the day,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

The Brent oil price lost 0.542% to U.S. $51.62 per barrel as of 5.55 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that a relatively stable ruble and a flight for quality provide a negative impact on the Russian metals industry. Metals giant Norilsk Nickel lost 1.96% to 9,000 rubles and steelmakers Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) and Severstal contracted 0.31% to 133.30 rubles and 2.61% to 828 rubles, respectively.

Kovalyov also said that shares of multi-industry holding Sistema gained 1.40% to 11.56 rubles after the Arbitration Court of the republic of Bashkortostan delayed hearing of a 170.6 billion ruble suit filed by Rosneft against the company until August 18.

Shares of gold producer Polyus were again among the gain leaders and grew XX% to XX rubles thanks to a rising price for gold, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.09	172.05	10.364
Gazprom	-0.95	116.93	2.914
Norilsk Nickel	-1.96	9000.00	2.245
Lukoil	-1.43	2860.00	1.614
ALROSA	-2.03	80.20	1.421

(59.9298 rubles – U.S. $1)

End