Russian stocks ease on lack of ideas, drivers

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted slightly on Friday because of a lack of trade ideas and strong drivers, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index slipped by 0.04% to 2,261.58 and the RTS eased by 0.62% to 971.95.

“The Russian stock market was under the pressure on Friday as it failed to find noticeable drivers for growth in the most liquid shares,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The foreign stock floors experienced profit taking while due to a lack of promising macroeconomic signals, while Russian oil companies showed almost no reaction to the country’s plans regarding contraction of internal oil production, she said.

“The Russian market was in the red zone on Friday. There were no distinct ideas on the market outside of the great geopolitical uncertainty,” Otkritie Research’s leading analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

The European indices were in the red zone as the financial regulators continue insisting on new increases of interest rates, while the futures for the U.S. indices fell as a result of growing yield of the treasuries. The oil prices rose on the statement of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak that the country planned to cut its oil output by 0.5 million barres per day in March in order to combat the oil embargoes and price caps, he said.

The shares of pulp and paper holding Segezha Group grew by 2.17% to 5.27 rubles in reaction to the results of President Vladimir Putin’s meeting for discussion of support of the timber industry. Segezha also helped the shares of its parent company Sistema gain 0.47% to 13.427 rubles, Kochetkov said.

Kozhukhova also said that real estate developer Samolet Group went up by 2.71% to 2,675.50 rubles in reaction to the latest financial report. The company’s net profit jumped by 57% on the year to 22.2 billion rubles in 2022.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.12	165.51	6.080
Segezha	+2.17	5.27	1.876
Norilsk Nickel	-0.62	14826.00	1.758
Gazprom	-0.21	158.86	1.391
Polyus	-0.19	9122.00	1.193

(72.8949 rubles – U.S. $1)

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