Russian stocks decrease as OPEC+ cannot decide on output cut

MOSCOW, Feb 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market declined on Thursday hit by the news that the monitoring committee of the OPEC+ could not decide on further measures to balance the market, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.56% to 3,096.68, and the RTS index decreased 1.35% to 1,539.42.

“The domestic market started the day optimistically, getting to a 3,145 notch. However, it did not manage to remain at these levels. Oil changed the trend and fell on the worries about falling demand due to the coronavirus in China,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that oil prices changed little after moving down from the daily maximums with Brent trying to keep at the U.S. $55 notch.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Moscow could not decide on the position on additional oil production cut, which, according to Kochetkov, also pushed down oil prices.

The European markets and the U.S. stock market futures were moderately positive, Kozhikhova said. The Euro Stoxx 50 grew by 0.4% as industrial orders in Germany fell by 2.1% in December against expectations of a 0.6% growth.

Kozhukhova said that Novatek decreased 4.87% on media reports about a possible fall of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to China.

Magnit shares were under the pressure from a report about a 49% decrease of the net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2019, the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.21	252.11	11.099
Gazprom	-0.51	231.38	9.916
Magnit	-1.86	3713	5.603
Norilsk Nickel	-0.36	21240	4.534
Lukoil	-0.67	6506.5	4.493

(63.1742 – U.S. $1)

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