Russian stocks fall as US–China trade war rages on

MOSCOW, Aug 5 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks contracted on Monday in line with all international bourses after a new twist in the U.S.–China trade war, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.96% to 2,649.16 and the RTS decreased 0.84% to 1,282.29.

“Early in the morning, retaliation came from China to the U.S.’ introduction of 10% duties on U.S. $300 billion of Chinese goods. Sources close to the Chinese government said that all Chinese companies that buy agricultural goods in the U.S. were told to stop the imports. Later in the day, the Chinese state television tried to deny the information saying that all contracts will be honored, but it had no impact on trade and all international markets continued to fall,” Oleg Bogdanov, senior analyst at investment company QBF, said.

“The foreign markets were devastated today by the aggravation of the U.S.–China trade war. The Chinese yuan fell, while the Japanese yen rose, and the indices in Asia and in Europe showed contraction of up to 1.5% and more,” Otkritie Broker’s senior analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

The fall of the Russian market could have been deeper due to the expansion of the U.S. sanctions against Russia on August 2, but panic on the local market was excessive last Friday. The new measures only prohibit U.S. investors from buying new non-ruble denominated Russian state debt, while the remaining part of the sanctions is irrelevant, including a ban on financing to Russia for the international associations, to which Moscow donates money, Kochetkov said.

Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said that the oil prices also had a negative impact on the national stock market, as the Brent lost more than 1% close to $60.5 per barrel.

Kochetkov also said that shares of gold producer Polyus were among the leaders today rising 5.14% to 6,844.50 rubles thanks to high prices for gold.

Shares of power utility Territorial Generating Company-1 (TGC-1) also outperformed the market and grew 1.76% to 0.010278 rubles thanks to robust financial results. The net profit of the company rose 16.9% on the year to more than 9.301 billion rubles in January–June, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-1.89	223.61	12.017
Sberbank	+0.65	222.24	10.951
Lukoil	+0.18	5139.00	5.546
Norilsk Nickel	-0.89	14192.00	2.392
Rosneft	-1.32	406.30	1.902

(64.6423 rubles – U.S. $1)

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