Russian stocks edge down amid negative foreign background

MOSCOW, Apr 30 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Friday in line with a moderately negative foreign background and prior to a long Labor Day weekend, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index lost 0.76% to 3,544.00 and the RTS decreased 1.7% to 1,485.03.

“The MOEX Russia and the RTS indices stayed in the red territory at the end of the trading session due to a lack of significant reasons for a rise, both corporate and external… (The benchmarks) broke through the support levels of 3,550 and 1,500,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Moderately pessimistic sentiments prevailed on the external stock exchanges, which pressured the Russian market ahead of a long weekend, she added.

Russia will celebrate Labor Day from May 1 through May 3.

Kozhukhova said that metals producer RUSAL, realty developer LSR and gas producer Novatek were among the biggest losers, falling by 2.88%, 2.86% and 3.01%, respectively.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Norilsk Nickel	-2.56	25660	11.606
Sberbank	+0.21	297.72	9.787
Lukoil	-2.19	5796.5	7.752
Gazprom	-0.18	230.1	6.612
Yandex	-1.67	4955.6	6.127

(74.3823 rubles – U.S. $1)

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