Russian stocks decrease on Asian, US markets' decline

MOSCOW, Sep 20 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market fell on Monday, following the trend on Asian and U.S. markets, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.62% to 3,969.61, and the RTS index decreased 2.54% to 1,700.66.

"The Russian market received a negative impulse from Asia. The troubles of China Evergrande with the coverage of liabilities on debt uncover the problems in the entire real estate sector in China. If prices for housing continue to fall for a long term, demand for minerals can decline," Andrei Kochetkov, Otkritie Broker senior analyst, said.

He added that Russian mineral resource producers have not reflected a damage from Finance Ministry's new tax initiatives to withdraw additional profit.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that U.S. S&P 500 futures declined 1.5%, as market participants had a negative outlook on a meeting of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) scheduled for Wednesday. The authority was expected to confirm a decision to curtail economic stimuli in the medium term. 

Oil and gas companies were the outsiders of the session, as a growth of the U.S. drilling affected oil prices negatively, and Gazprom lost on risks of the revision of agreements in Germany after the parliamentary elections in the country, Kochetkov said.

Gold companies rose as their shares were seen as protective assets, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-2.45	326.32	18.708
Sberbank	-0.59	327.61	9.061
Norilsk Nickel	-2.43	22690	7.868
Lukoil	-0.58	6592.5	5.213
Rosneft	-2.19	554.7	4.305

(72.5602 – U.S. $1)

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