Russian stocks edge down pressured by global market negativity

MOSCOW, Jan 22 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market was trading in the negative territory on Friday pressured by the global market pessimism, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index lost 1.16% to 3,382.92 and the RTS decreased 3.11% to 1,418.29.

“The MOEX Russia and the RTS indices managed to bounce back from the day’s lows at the end of the trading session on Friday to win back the important short-term levels of 3,375 and 1,345, respectively,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Pessimistic correction sentiments prevailed on the Western stock markets in the first half of the day, but major foreign benchmarks rebounded from their lows after the opening of the U.S market, Kozhukhova also said.

The Brent crude price lost around 1% by the end of the trading session in Russia ahead of the U.S. Energy Department’s weekly oil inventories report, she added.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the ruble was also pressured by the possibility of new sanctions and weakness of the energy market.

Kozhukhova said that global depositary receipts (GDRs) of grocery retailer X5 Retail Group fell 0.21% to follow the market sentiment despite good operating results with net retail revenue rising 14.3% in 2020.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.51	267.5	22.513
Gazprom	-1.12	214.84	19.215
Lukoil	-0.73	5729	8.925
Norilsk Nickel	-1.58	26120	8.434
Rosneft	-1.38	491.5	4.035

(73.3694 rubles – U.S. $1)

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