Russian stocks fall as EU sanctions extension looms, ruble fall

MOSCOW, Jun 17 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Wednesday as permanent representatives of E.U. member countries decided to prolong sanctions against Moscow, while the ruble weakened, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.25% to 1,664.66 and RTS decreased 1.20% to 966.55.

“The Russian market’s volatility is still there, and lately the lack of positive news has become a negative factor for the stocks. The E.U. decision on sanctions’ prolongation brought no positive mood to the market, and … the MICEX index edged down,” Sergei Filchenkov, analyst at Metropol, said.

Biggest bank Sberbank was one of the loss leaders as the national currency weakened, Metropol’s Filchenkov said. The bank’s common shares lost 0.94% to 72.81 rubles, while preferred shares contracted by 2.44% to 49.61 rubles.

Common and preferred shares of telecom giant Rostelecom also decreased by 1.82% to 90.33 rubles and 1.43% to 63.28 rubles respectively, as investors saw the election of Head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Ivanov as board chairman as a sign of future negative changes in the company.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.94	72.81	6.404
Gazprom	+1.10	147.60	3.598
Lukoil	-1.01	2475.00	1.880
VTB	+0.01	0.08001	1.695
Magnit	-0.31	11520.00	1.657

(54.0409 rubles – U.S. $1)

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