Russian stocks decrease on profit taking, low oil prices

MOSCOW, Sep 18 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Friday amid low trading activity caused by a lack of corporate news and traders’ decision to take profit, as well as on the back of falling oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.06% to 1,710.84 and the RTS decreased 0.80% to 816.56.

“Investors taking profit can be one of the reasons for today’s market decline,” Veles Capital analyst Alexander Kostyukov said.

“An almost complete absence of important corporate news does not give any reasons for large-scale movements in shares. Trading volumes are not high today,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Traders in Russia and abroad are trying to comprehend the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Thursday decision to leave the interest rate unchanged, the analyst said.

“Today our indexes are consolidating on the back of low trading activity caused by the end of work week,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said, adding that the Fed’s decision did not have an impact on the Russian market.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.29	75.50	7.882
Gazprom	-2.31	139.50	6.232
Lukoil	-1.44	2403.80	3.151
Rosneft	+1.25	256.00	2.334
Norilsk Nickel	-0.95	11100.00	2.217

(65.3623 rubles – U.S. $1)

End