Russian stocks decrease as oil prices, foreign markets fall

MOSCOW, Nov 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market declined on Wednesday due to a continued oil price fall coupled with increased concerns of investors that Donald Trump will win the U.S. presidential election, which dragged foreign markets down, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.41% to 1,968.77, and the RTS decreased 2.36% to 973.09.

“In general, the local market is reflecting a continued medium-term fall of oil futures’ price today. The prices for crude oil are going down on the data by the American Petroleum Institute (API) which signified an unexpectedly large-scale increase of the U.S. crude reserves,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

The volatility on foreign markets significantly increased on the back of rising chances that Trump will win at the upcoming U.S. election, Alfa-Capital’s analyst Denis Asainov said.

Any serious trade decisions may be postponed until Thursday due to an expected announcement of the outcomes of a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed), Manzhos said.

U.S. non-farm payrolls grew less than expected, as reported by ADP, which is why the Fed is expected to abstain from raising the interest rate now, Igor Kalyazin, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Surgutneftegas was growing on Wednesday despite the negative oil market trend on the back of a resumed decrease of the ruble, which gives investors a hope of a possible revaluation of the company’s foreign currency reserves at the end of 2016, Manzhos said.

Gazprom continued to grow on a possible dividend increase for 2016; on the back of a report of a record non-CIS exports growth in October, and due to a wider access to the OPAL pipeline received from the European Commission, he said.

Transaero’s stocks soared 70.76% to 6.54 rubles on the news that the board of directors of the company will consider resuming the activities of the airline, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.39	142.36	8.645
Gazprom	-0.82	140.81	6.122
Lukoil	-3.96	2983	3.871
Surgutneftegas pref	+3.02	29	2.511
Surgutneftegas	+4.21	28.6	1.981

(63.2025 rubles – U.S. $1)

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