Russian stocks decrease on pessimistic external background

MOSCOW, Jan 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged down on Tuesday amid a generally discouraging foreign background, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index dropped 1.26% to 2,196.84 and the RTS fell 2.11% to 1,002.85.

“The Russian stock market closed the day in the negative territory… Its dynamics were defined by a generally negative sentiment on the global markets, and the dynamics of specific Russian shares,” Director of the stock market department at managing company Pervaya Anton Kravchenko said.

He added that the main European benchmarks fell by around 1%, the U.S. indices also started the day lower. At the same time, the Brent oil price has added more than 2% to over U.S. $86 per barrel after OPEC’s optimistic monthly report released in the evening.

The MOEX Russia Index corrected downwards, but it is still above the 2,200 mark and still stays within a short-term upward trend so growth toward the 2,230–2,260 range can be seen soon, Kravchenko also said.

Freedom Finance Global’s Senior Analyst Natalya Milchakova said that the bears on the Russian market were supported by head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s statement at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the Western sanctions can plunge the Russian economy into recession for years.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.75	151.02	10.664
Gazprom	-1.91	162.63	2.463
SPB Exchange	-5.22	159.7	2.420
Magnit	-0.68	4642	2.162
ALROSA	-0.67	62.1	2.097

(68.2892 rubles – U.S. $1)

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