Russian stocks decline amid profit taking before weekend

MOSCOW, Jun 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market corrected downwards on Friday as investors were taking the smallest profits attained during the week, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell by 0.67% to 2,353.98, and the RTS index edged down by 0.10% to 1,315.43.

“The Russian market mainly traded in minus… The participants of the stock trade were taking profits gained from small achievements of the week before the weekend. Trade activity decreased considerably,” Otkritie Research leading analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

He also said that most of the Russian stocks showed little reaction to the statements coming from the St. International Economic Forum as most of them were not program statements and lacked specifics.

The Russian stock market finished the day with downwards correction retreating from local peaks after growth of the previous days, Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

“(The Russian stock indices) strived to keep the positions that were captured during the week and this fact provides for a good base for growth during the next session,” she added.

The foreign stocks floors showed moderately optimistic moods during the day, but the mid-term trend for the western bourses is still downward, Kozhukhova said.

The stocks of real estate developers grew after President Vladimir Putin called for cutting the interest rate on beneficial mortgage loans to 7%, Kozhukhova said. The stocks of Etalon, PIK, LSR and Samolet rose 3.76%, 3.42%, 1.38% and 0.7%, respectively.

Acron grew 3.09% on high prices for fertilizers, Kozhukhova also said.

Enel fell 11.33% after the announcement of financial conditions of the deal to sell Enel Russia, Freedom Finance analysts said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.12	123.88	4.542
Gazprom	-0.47	315.5	4.138
Lukoil	-1.87	4182	2.114
Novatek	-1.29	875.8	1.055
Rosneft	+0.38	384.45	0.915

(56.8691 rubles – U.S. $1)

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