Russian stocks fall ahead of US Fed meeting, Netherlands’ poll

MOSCOW, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Wednesday as investors were uninterested in risky assets ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) meeting and amid elections in the Netherlands, while recovering oil prices slightly supported the RTS, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.43% to 1,992.59 and the RTS went down 0.10% to 1,062.61.

“On the Russian stock market, investors have been witnessing a repeated attempt of the MICEX index to go to the zone of 2,010–2,020. An oil price rebound to U.S. $51.8 per barrel was the reason. But as we expected, the current risks stopped the further index growth,” Anastasia Sosnova, senior analyst at Bank Rossiysky Capital, said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that market participants do not believe that the OPEC plus non-member agreement participants will be able to follow the terms of the oil output reduction deal for a long time.

Finam analyst Bogdan Zvarich said that the European markets grew by up to 0.2% but Russian investors remained unimpressed.

According to Sosnova, global investors were waiting for the Fed to make its key rate decision, which is why foreign markets were almost flat.

Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said that the elections to the parliament of the Netherlands were also making investors wary of risky assets. A probable victory by the party of Geert Wilders poses threats of dire political outcomes. The future elections in France are making investors even more nervous. 

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Wednesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.77	156.2	7.698
Gazprom	-0.93	127.6	3.974
Lukoil	+0.26	3088	2.349
Norilsk Nickel	-0.44	9057	1.642
Rosneft	-0.22	314.7	1.442

(58.9540 rubles – U.S. $1)

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