Russian stocks depressed by falling oil price, global bourses

MOSCOW, Apr 25 (PRIME) -- The Russian equity market corrected downwards as prices for oil, the backbone of the country’s economy, and global stock indices fell, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.60% to 1,955.47 and the RTS decreased 0.41% to 927.66.

“The market was in no mood to buy because of negative external conditions and a downward correction in the oil price,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, which jumped 8.07% to 205,000 rubles per preferred share, was supported by the news that the company has no plans to apply to the government to be excluded from the list of companies, which have to pay higher dividends for 2015.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a ruling obliging state companies to pay at least 50% of a net profit in dividends for 2015; a company should take the highest figure of its net profit – under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) or under IFRS.

Pharmaceutical company Protek was still supported by strong financial results for 2015, its consolidated IFRS revenue rose 24.4%, while the pharmaceutical market rose 9.3% in the period, Manzhos said, citing data of marketing agency DSM Group. Protek surged 6.8% to 95.1 rubles.

Retailer Magnit fell 7.33% to 9,540 rubles after publishing weak financial results for January–March. The company’s net profit contracted 13% to 8.2 billion rubles, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Russian Grids, which will pay no dividends for 2015, went down 3.71% to 0.6259 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.96	120.08	8.108
Magnit	-7.33	9540.00	5.543
Gazprom	-0.56	160.30	5.124
Lukoil	-1.28	2853.00	2.527
Norilsk Nickel	-1.22	9631.00	2.455

(66.2198 rubles – U.S. $1)

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