Russian stocks edge down amid uncertain external background

MOSCOW, Apr 28 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market started the day higher, but then lost the optimism and decreased by the end of the trading session on Wednesday amid an uncertain global environment, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.62% to 3,578,12 and the RTS decreased 0.46% to 1,509.06.

“The MOEX Russia and the RTS indices stayed in the negative territory at the end of the trading session, but managed to bounce back from the day’s lowest near the support levels of 3,560 and 1,500… The sentiments on the foreign stock exchanges were mixed, and even rising crude prices failed to support the domestic stock market,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

In the evening, the European Parliament released a draft resolution to suggest switching Russia off the international interbank settlement system SWIFT and other sanctions over the situation in Ukraine, she also said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the domestic benchmarks started the day positively, but lost the optimism fast thanks to weak dynamics of the European indices and the gold price.

The Moscow Exchange’s transport index was seen low due to a significant fall of 5.34% in rail cargo operator Globaltrans’s shares, he added.

Kozhukhova said that oil company Tatneft was among the biggest losers falling 7.12% on a disappointing 2020 dividends recommendation of 22.24 rubles per share.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Norilsk Nickel	-2.6	26250	14.956
Sberbank	-0.03	298.4	11.479
Tatneft	-7.12	528	9.946
Yandex	+1.59	4807.2	8.889
Gazprom	+0.07	232.17	8.315

(74.9578 rubles – U.S. $1)

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