Russian stocks drift lower as oil falls after OPEC meeting

MOSCOW, Jun 2 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Thursday, because OPEC countries failed to agree on an oil output ceiling and oil prices fell, and on the back of falling U.S. futures, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.13% to 1,890.78 and the RTS decreased 0.52% to 885.93.

“Russian stocks were depressed by ambiguity on U.S. futures markets. Risky assets were also put under pressure by oil price dynamics, as oil prices fell to below $50 per barrel of Brent again,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said that oil prices decreased because OPEC countries failed to agree on a new output quota, as they can neither estimate the current global oil production quota due to supply problems of Libya and Nigeria nor influence Iran which wants to reach an oil output exceeding pre-sanction levels.

Power utility Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES) jumped 7.29% to 0.13797 rubles, still supported by the news that the company will pay generous dividends, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Russian Grids rose 2.35% to 0.87 rubles per preferred share and fell 3.25% to 0.5208 rubles per common share, because the company decided to pay 0.0083 rubles per common share and 0.0745 rubles per preferred share in dividends for January–March, Manzhos said.

Multi-industry holding Sistema, which posted a 2.486 billion ruble adjusted net profit in January–March against a 2.7 billion ruble adjusted net loss in the same period of 2015, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards, increased 1.02% to 20.72 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.72	132.30	8.415
Gazprom	-0.48	144.00	3.423
Lukoil	+0.66	2597.00	2.528
Magnit	-0.70	9190.00	1.938
Rosneft	-0.53	311.35	1.190

(66.6156 rubles – U.S. $1)

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