Russian stocks decrease on oil price drop, weak ruble

MOSCOW, Dec 11 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Friday on the back of sliding global oil prices and depreciation of the ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.73% to 1,720.31 and the RTS went down 1.97% to 777.17.

“The (dollar-denominated) RTS index contracted quite sharply under the influence of significant depreciation of the ruble against the U.S. dollar,” Bank Obrazovanie’s senior analyst Vitaly Manzhos said.

Oil prices continued falling after OPEC reported a higher oil production in November on Thursday, Vasily Tanurkov, deputy director of the stock market analysis department at Veles Capital, said. Brent dropped 3% to U.S. $38.53 per barrel as of 6:22 p.m. Moscow time for the first time since late December 2008 after the International Energy Agency (IEA) kept its forecast for a growth of demand by 1.8 million barrels of oil per day in 2015 and by 1.2 million barrels in 2016.

The weakened ruble led to a higher demand for shares of Russian exporters, Tanurkov said. Uncut diamond giant ALROSA, gold producer Polyus Gold, titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma, and fertilizer maker PhosAgro were among leaders, all having grown by around 2%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.98	98.15	9.032
Gazprom	-1.33	133.80	3.674
Magnit	-0.92	11039.00	1.761
Lukoil	+0.20	2450.00	1.694
Norilsk Nickel	-0.28	8900.00	1.595

(69.2151 rubles – U.S. $1)

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