Russian stocks fall as US inflation data triggers global sales

MOSCOW, Sep 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted on Wednesday following other global markets, the sales on which were caused by U.S. inflation statistics, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell by 0.45% to 2,435.89 and the RTS decreased by 0.10% to 1,282.80.

“The Russian stock market has continued its correction today as the mood of players on the foreign bourses worsened. The S&P 500 index lost 4.3% yesterday on the background of U.S. data concerning inflation, which amounted to 8.3% in August, higher than the expectations of 8.1%,” Promsvyazbank’s senior analyst Vladimir Lyashchuk said.

Financial group Finam’s analyst Alexei Kalachev said that the U.S. inflation figures triggered sales on stock markets across the world as the statistics removes grounds for the U.S. Federal Reserve System to slow down the increase of its rate.

“The market is now discussing a possibility of the Federal Reserve System raising the rate immediately by 1 percentage point at a meeting in a week instead of a slowdown to 50 basis points,” Kalachev said.

Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global, said that Rosbank was among the biggest losers today as its shares fell by 6.91% to 105 rubles after tycoon Vladimir Potanin’s Interros decided to transfer up to 50% of the bank’s shares into the Vladimir Potanin Foundation charity fund.

Fertilizer producer PhosAgro contracted by 3.91% to 7,600 rubles as the Finance Ministry planned to introduce export duties on all types of fertilizers for the next six months. This may reduce the company’s net revenue and delay the implementation of its investment plans, Chernov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.53	139.10	8.092
Gazprom	+0.31	243.39	4.463
Lukoil	-1.29	4484.00	3.372
Norilsk Nickel	-1.13	16246.00	2.436
PhosAgro	-3.91	7600.00	2.098

(60.0676 rubles – U.S. $1)

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