Russian stocks dive on rising chances of new US sanctions

MOSCOW, Feb 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market on Thursday saw the second consecutive session of severe losses sparked by threats of new anti-Russian sanctions, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index dropped 1.00% to 2,460.82 and the RTS slid 2.90% to 1.156.31.

“The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS index remained considerably lower due to the sanctions threat,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Democratic and Republican senators submitted a bill on new sanctions against the Russian banking and energy sectors and its debt.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the Russian banks’ stocks were under the heaviest pressure as the banks may be switched off from the global payment system although the perspective still looks unlikely.

The market’s most liquid common and preferred shares of top bank Sberbank were the biggest losers diving 4.43% to 204.43 rubles and 3.37% to 176.7 rubles.

Gas giant Gazprom lost 2.59% to 155.15 rubles as its Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project remains among the major targets of the U.S. pressure on Europe, Kochetkov added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank, common	-4.43	204.43	32.089
Gazprom	-2.59	155.15	6.016
Lukoil	0.18	5360.5	4.336
Rosneft	-1.68	394.85	3.229
Sberbank, preferred	-3.37	176.7	2.841

(65.6783 rubles – U.S. $1)

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