Russian stocks decrease on oil price fall, looming sanctions

MOSCOW, Sep 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market demonstrated a negative dynamics on Thursday on the back of an oil price retrenchment and the return of the Western sanctions to the agenda, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.59% to 3,019.22, and the RTS index decreased 1.44% to 988.12.

"Sales on the market have continued on the back of a decrease of oil prices, and also due to a local strengthening of the ruble. Besides, a risk of toughening of the sanctions pressure is on the agenda again. The E.U. is preparing to discuss another package of sanctions concerning Russia," managing company Pervaya analyst Sofya Kirsanova said.

The financial and the electric power sectors outperformed the market during the session, the analyst said.

Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the shares of Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) increased 0.63% looking more confident than the market. "Investors, obviously, do not rule out that NLMK would use the income from the sale (of the rolled steel division to Industrial Metallurgical Holding) for dividend payment," the analyst said.

ALROSA remained under pressure falling 2.63% on the back of the future sanctions on Russian diamonds by the Western states, Kozhukhova said.

Detsky Mir corrected downwards 7.28% after a price jump on Wednesday, she said.

The foreign markets mood was moderately negative, as the nearest Brent and the WTI futures descended about 0.5% by the middle of the session and tried to remain at the support zones of U.S. $92.5 and $88.9, the analyst said.

The U.S. S&P 500 stock market futures accelerated the decline and lost about 0.8% in the middle of the Russian session after a univocal signal by the Federal Reserve System (Fed) concerning a possible increase of the key rate in 2023. The Euro Stoxx 50 index dove about 1.5%, Kozhukhova said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.13	250.89	13.219
Lukoil	-0.36	6400	8.635
Rosneft	-3.51	510.75	6.934
Gazprom	-1.81	166.05	4.487
Magnit	-4.21	5260	4.267

(96.6172 rubles – U.S. $1)

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