Russian stocks fall as investors flee from risks, oil price plunge

MOSCOW, May 31 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks contracted on Wednesday as risk appetite of investors has weakened significantly and oil prices plunged as the world oil production grows, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.68% to 1,900.38 and the RTS decreased 2.00% to 1,053.30.

“Investors are definitely not likely to risk today. The upcoming elections in the U.K., the possibility of elections in Italy being delayed for the autumn of this year, the possible default of Greece exert pressure on risky assets. Moreover, oil prices also fell today,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said.

The Brent oil price fell 3.639% to U.S. $50.02 per barrel as of 5.57 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“Oil continues pricing in growth of production in the U.S., Libya, Nigeria, and Canada,” Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

It is worth noting that the most significant sales were seen in the blue chips, the key place for investments of foreigners. “It is possible that investors started to take profits on more risky assets under conditions of overrated estimates of Western floors. Thus, May once again proved the saying ‘sell in May and go away’,” Kochetkov said.

Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said that shares of metals and mining group Mechel led the market with common shares rising 6.15% and preferred shares gaining 16.35% thanks to good financial performance.

The financial results of gas giant Gazprom were not that positive, as the IFRS net profit attributable to shareholders fell 8% on the year to 333.453 billion rubles in the period. As a result, shares of Gazprom lost 1.49%, Kovalyov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Transneft prefs	+0.16	158700.00	13.576
Sberbank	-3.53	155.93	11.702
NLMK	+6.39	115.50	9.183
Gazprom	-1.49	120.28	6.671
Lukoil	-2.55	2753.00	2.881

(56.5168 rubles – U.S. $1)

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