Russian stocks fall after oil, ruble decline amid political, econ worries

MOSCOW, Oct 4 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks dropped on Thursday amid rising sanctions risks, decline in oil prices and the ruble, and economic worries abroad, analytics said.

“The Russian market fell at the start of trading and remained in the negative territory through to the closing. Oil futures lost about 0.6% and sanctions risks increased again. Some countries, including the Netherlands and the U.K. accused Russia of hacker attacks,” investment company Veles Capital said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.16% to 2,465.03 and the RTS fell 2.95% to 1,160.76.

Most of European and the U.S. stocks traded in the negative zone as investors were worried about a rise in the U.S. Treasuries yield and a scandal over a possible interference of China in the U.S.’ elections, Veles Capital said.

Analyst at Freedom Finance Anastasia Sosnova attributed the decline of world markets to expectations of tightening of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

Alexei Korenev, Finam analyst, said that the Russian ruble fell significantly under pressure of markets’ decline and lower oil reaching 66.86 per U.S. dollar and 76.92 per euro by the closing bell.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-4.51	189.35	16.889
Gazprom	-0.57	168.50	9.211
Lukoil	-0.89	4990	4.017
Rosneft	-0.74	508.20	3.718
Surgutneftegas	-2.14	37.305	1.411

(65.4244 rubles – U.S. $1)

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