Russian stocks decrease on oil price fall, mixed foreign markets

MOSCOW, Aug 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed in the red zone on Thursday as oil corrected downwards after growing in the morning and foreign market trends were mixed, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.14% to 2,988.50, and the RTS index decreased 0.99% to 1,282.44.

"The MOEX Russia Index rose above 3,000 in the first half of the day. But the external background started to deteriorate and this moderated the optimism of buyers to a large degree," Otkritie Broker’s lead analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

The Brent oil blend grew in the morning but then corrected downwards to test the U.S. $45 level, as the U.S. Department of Energy reported that fuel demand in the country was about 8.6 million barrels per day, falling 10% on the year, Kochetkov said. He said that J.P. Morgan cut the forecast for demand in April–June, which added to the pessimism.

According to Kochetkov, a lack of positive statistics and the U.S. rhetoric signaling further confrontation with China, and the accusations of Russia of propaganda pressurized markets.

Valery Yemelyanov, analyst at Freedom Finance, said that investors sold European and Russian securities on Thursday and cautiously bought the U.S. ones ahead of the announcement of a new package of economic stimuli in the U.S. The key E.U. markets lost up to 1%, emerging market funds corrected downwards slightly, Asian markets were mixed.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-0.45	188.29	7.817
Sberbank	-0.71	224.79	6.412
Polyus	+1.01	18353	5.463
Norilsk Nickel	-0.39	20804	4.541
Lukoil	-0.23	5124	4.403

(73.2806 – U.S. $1)

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