Russian stocks decrease pressured by low oil prices

MOSCOW, Dec 8 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Tuesday amid a negative foreign background and falling oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX stock index fell 1.28% to 1,718.77 and the RTS stock index decreased 2.04% to 777.15.

“Today trading on the Russian stock market is again at a minor note, although sales have a bit slowed down by the middle of the day,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

The Brent oil price is fluctuating around U.S. $40 per barrel and even fell below that psychologically important level in the middle of the day for the first time since February 2009 on the back of OPEC’s recent decision not to change oil production quotas, analysts said. Low oil prices in their turn deepened depreciation of the Russian ruble, Alpari analyst Anna Kokoreva said.

“The Russian market is not yet used to such low prices, that’s why investors close long positions and pull out from Russian shares expecting stabilization of the oil market,” Artyom Zvyagilsky, a leading analyst at MFX Broker, said.

Gazprom rose 0.11% on reports that Gazprom and China’s CNPC confirmed intention to design and build a trans-border section of the Sila Sibiri gas pipeline, Kovalyov said.

Rosneft closed 0.27% higher on reports that it agreed to start bilateral talks with Iranian partners over its future operations in the country, Kovalyov said.

Growth was recorded in shares of Russian exporters like fertilizer maker Uralkali, which rose 3.14%, steelmaker Severstal, which closed 0.11% higher, aluminum giant UC RUSAL, which grew 0.64%, metals giant Norilsk Nickel, which went up 0.5%, Vasily Tanurkov, deputy director of the stock market analysis department at Veles Capital, said.

Below is a breakdown of the five most active stocks on the MICEX on Tuesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-5.83	97.00	15.881
Gazprom	+0.11	134.65	4.796
Lukoil	-1.33	2377.90	2.620
Magnit	-1.18	11590.00	2.323
Norilsk Nickel	+0.50	8970.00	2.150

(68.5156 rubles – U.S. $1)

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