Russian stocks edge down pressured by discouraging foreign environ

MOSCOW, Jul 5 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market fell on Friday discouraged by a negative external environment with most European markets closing in the red territory, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index lost 0.26% to 2,835.35 and the RTS went down 0.91% to 1,398.75.

"The Russian stock indices edged up in the morning with the MOEX Russia Index hitting new record highs and the RTS index reaching the 5-year highest. The external background looked moderately negative, which finally forced the Russian market to reverse," BCS Broker expert Dmitry Babin said.

The global stock exchanges and the domestic benchmarks slid steeply after the release of the U.S. non-farm payrolls data that had reduced the possibility of aggressive softening of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, Babin said, adding that profit-taking ahead of the weekend was another reason for the decline.

Power producer Enel Russia was among the biggest losers contracting 11.12% to 1.0110 rubles as the stock started trading ex-dividend.

Multi-industry holding Sistema and national air carrier Aeroflot dropped 1.04% to 11.4 rubles and 0.54% to 110 rubles, respectively, following the previous rally.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-1.57	250.89	9.152
Sberbank	0	242.83	6.760
Lukoil	-0.08	5460	5.657
VTB Bank	-0.1	0.041355	1.671
Aeroflot	-0.54	110	1.652

(63.4013 rubles – U.S. $1)

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