Russian stocks decline on external pessimism, falling oil, metals

MOSCOW, Aug 19 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market rested in the red territory during the day thanks to global sales of risky assets and natural resources, and finished the day lower on Thursday.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.81% to 3,853.98 and the RTS decreased 2.36% to 1,635.63.

“The MOEX Russia and the RTS indices stayed in the negative territory at the end of the trading session, but tried to bounce back from the day’s lowest… The last day of the week will demonstrate how far the markets can fall during the correction,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Sales prevailed on the global stock exchanges, although U.S. investors did not demonstrate inclination to a further slide, and the market sentiment was also negative in Europe, she added.

The Brent and the WTI crude prices remained deeply in the negative territory, losing around 3.5–4% in light of uncertainty about future demand for the commodity.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the global negativity was sparked by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s plans to finish its bond purchase program by the middle of 2022, which resulted in strengthening of the U.S. dollar to 9-month highs and deflation of natural resources including oil and metals.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-1.03	292	14.972
Sberbank	-1.39	330.23	13.256
Lukoil	-2.2	6303.5	7.506
Norilsk Nickel	-2.26	23600	6.553
Rosneft	-2.53	533.1	5.757

(73.4633 – U.S. $1)

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