Russian stocks fall as global investors flee from risk

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks contracted on Friday in line with the foreign bourses as investors fled from risks over global vaccination fears, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.94% to 3,277.08 and the RTS decreased 1.23% to 1,367.64.

“The national market fell as it tracked the Asian and European bourses during the day. The investor mood favor a flight from risk on a global scale due to worsening vaccination forecasts,” Andrei Kochetkov, lead analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the oil prices were the only exemption from the downward dynamics, but they were only just consolidating around the current week’s level.

The U.S. bourses fell as the market was nervous about recent speculative deals and volatility of some companies like GameStop, while the European investors also sold as they were not happy about the prospects of the European economy during the coronavirus restrictions, Kozhukhova said.

Kochetkov said that shares of metals companies were under the pressure as an increase of export duties on metals products can still happen. Core shareholder of Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) Vladimir Lisin wants to prepare a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishutin advising against it as it may only deepen the deficit of metal in Russia and hurt the industry. NLMK lost 2.20%, Severstal lost 1.36%, and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) went down 0.78%.

Kozhukhova also said that shares of Norilsk Nickel were undermined by media reports that the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Oversight was not ready to compromise over a fine for a 2020 fuel oil spill. The metals giant lost 2.81%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.84	258.42	28.847
Gazprom	-1.51	214.42	13.153
Lukoil	-3.12	5401.00	10.383
Norilsk Nickel	-2.81	24520.00	8.123
Polyus	-1.84	14399.50	4.721

(76.1854 rubles – U.S. $1)

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