Russian stocks fall amid Christmas on weak ruble, dull forecasts

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Friday in thin trade amid no growth drivers, no trade in the U.S. and the E.U. due to the Christmas celebration, a falling ruble and dull forecasts for oil prices and the country’s economy, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.49% to 1,734.21 and the RTS decreased 1.04% to 772.94.

“The Russian market is in the red again on the back of no external growth drivers...(there is no trading on the American and European bourses, as well as on most major markets for commodities, primarily for oil),” Yevgeny Loktyukhov, an analyst at Promsvyazbank said.

“Trading activity fell sharply and there is a moderate decrease in all segments, except for fertilizer producers, whose shares are attractive amid the ruble weakening,” the analyst said. Mineral fertilizer PhosAgro increased 1.82%.

The fall of the dollar-denominated RTS was technically sped up by the ruble weakening against the dollar to 70.7 against the U.S. dollar by the closing bell.

Dull forecasts for oil price dynamics and Russian economic growth in 2016 put indices under pressure, Artyom Zvyagilsky, a senior analyst at MFX Broker, said.

Bloomberg earlier reported that oil price may collapse to $15 per barrel and after that the ruble may plummet to $90–100 against the dollar, Zvyagilsky said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.01	101.34	2.660
Gazprom	-1.12	134.48	2.004
Rosneft	-2.31	245.80	0.935
Norilsk Nickel	0.00	9344.00	0.691
VTB	0.12	0.07710	0.541

(69.5165 rubles – U.S. $1)

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