Russian stocks fall as investors flee from risks on trade war

MOSCOW, Jun 19 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market dropped on Tuesday on the back of a flee for safety by investors worldwide as the U.S. and China continued their trade conflict, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index eased 0.05% to 2,221.42 and the RTS index decreased 0.34% to 1,096.92.

“The Russian market is again tracking foreign news. The U.S. keeps raising its pressure on China in trade and Beijing reciprocates, a threat to the global economy, and therefore demand for Russia’s key exports,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

The European indices and the U.S. stock market futures fell, currencies of the oil producing states weakened, while there were such indicators of risk flight as strengthening of the yen and the fall of the U.S. Treasuries’ yield, Kochetkov said.

According to Kochetkov, the Russian government’s plans to raise value-added tax (VAT) add to the negative expectations of investors.

Forex Club analyst Ivan Marchena said that the Brent oil price fell as market participants waited for a decision on the future terms of the OPEC plus nonmember output reduction agreement, to be made on Friday.

Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Nord Capital, said that both the MOEX Russia Index and the RTS hit their lows for two months anew.

Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) slid on a dividend gap, Manzhos said.

He also said that oil and gas companies traded better than the market because a possible increase of the OPEC plus nonmember deal quotas was priced in. Russian oil producers would probably benefit in the short term from raising their output.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.15	206	10.543
Gazprom	-0.75	135.5	4.894
Lukoil	+1.12	4091	3.370
Norilsk Nickel	+0.68	11126	2.044
Rosneft	+1.38	392.35	2.029

(63.4838 rubles – U.S. $1)

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