Russian stocks decrease on unfavorable external background

MOSCOW, Sep 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market fell on Friday because of a pessimistic mood of players on the other stock exchanges of the world, which was worsened by recent releases of macroeconomic statistics causing concerns, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.61% to 2,431.61 and the RTS decreased 1.01% to 1,275.03.

“Market players had no motivation for growth taking into the account an unfavorable condition of the external background. The global investment community is once again concerned that regulators would have to continue aggressively toughening their monetary policies given the macro statistics that was published lately,” Zarina Saidova, analyst at investment company Finam, said.

Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the mood of the players on the European bourses was negative as their week ended with releases of another batch of worrisome economic statistics, and the futures for the U.S. stock indices were in the red zone during the day. A recent attempt of the U.S. indices to overcome their short-term resistance levels failed because of a disappointing statistics on inflation, she said.

Otkritie Research’s leading analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said that the shares of Russian real estate developers were falling as investors were displeased with a not-so-drastic cut of the central bank’s key rate on Friday. PIK Group was among the biggest losers falling by 3.38% to 786.80 rubles.

The shares of internet giant Yandex outperformed the market and grew by 1.43% to 2,208.80 rubles as the company was going to enter the market of taxi services in the United Arab Emirates. Russian technological solutions may find their consumer outside Europe and the U.S., Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.20	137.80	9.701
Gazprom	-0.05	243.55	8.751
Rosneft	-2.26	359.00	2.775
Lukoil	-0.68	4499.00	2.052
Yandex	+1.43	2208.80	1.645

(59.6665 rubles – U.S. $1)

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