Russian stocks deepen fall on risks of US sanctions

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (PRIME) – Monday’s decline of the Russian stock market deepened on Tuesday as the sanctions risks remained in focus of investors, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.56% to 2,458.55, and the RTS Index decreased 0.29% to 1,173.64.

“The Russian market has not found any reason for growth since the question of restrictions remains unclarified. Nevertheless, the market sagging was not as significant as to say that there is an overwhelming fear. Perhaps, clarification of the matter will trigger fast recovery of the market to the previous levels,” Andrei Kochetkov, Otkritie Broker’s analyst, said.

On February 13, U.S. senators submitted a draft law introducing tougher sanctions against Russia over U.S. elections meddling and aggression against Ukraine. Russian banks, IT companies, new sovereign debt and some citizens are the main targets of the measures. The oil and gas sector can also be punished.

Senior analyst at Promsvyazbank Bogdan Zvarich said that a 0.4% retrench of the Brent price was also a negative factor for the Russian market. The European markets fell as well, forming a negative market mood in Russia, he said.

In the evening, after the start of the U.S. trading session, oil started to recover, the Western markets began to rise, and the Russian market erased some losses, Dmitry Babin, analyst at BCS Broker, said.

Kochetkov said that Sberbank and Gazprom remained weaker than the market. Gazprom fell on a report about a 1.5% annual decline of exports from January 1 till February 15 and on forecasts that it will be warmer in Europe in spring 2019 than last year.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.03	202.08	13.549
Gazprom	-1.53	154.03	3.103
Lukoil	-0.73	5443.5	2.832
Norilsk Nickel	+1.02	13800	1.459
Rosneft	-0.51	402.95	1.360

(66.2470 rubles – U.S. $1)

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