Russian stocks fall as investors take profits after cbanks' steps

MOSCOW, Apr 30 (PRIME) – The Russian stock market decreased on Thursday as investors took profits after seeing the measures the central banks take worldwide to counter the effects of the epidemic, analysts said. 

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.47% to 2,650.56, and the RTS index decreased 1.71% to 1,125.03.

"The mood on the Russian market in the morning was optimistic, but the situation has gradually deteriorated. We can say to a certain extent that all investor expectations of the central banks' incentives have been fulfilled, and this is a reason to take profits," Otkritie Broker’s senior analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Kochetkov said that the European markets rose early in the day but the trend changed soon after the European Central Bank said it was ready to extend the bond buyback program, announced new programs of early refinancing, and a cut of the TLTRO transactions rate. The analyst said that the European ruler was cautious compared with the Japanese and U.S. financial authorities.

He said that the oil prices rose after Sinopec said that sales had recovered to 90% of the pre-pandemic amount. At the same time, a report by the International Energy Agency saying that oil storages in the OECD states can be fully loaded by mid-June and that the global demand would fall by 6% by the end of 2020 soured the mood on the commodity markets. 

Valery Yemelyanov, analyst at investment company Freedom Finance, said that the oil prices were supported by the news about a faster than expected U.S. shale oil production decrease and speculations that the U.S. could withdraw military support of Saudi Arabia if a promise to cut oil output by 9.7 million barrels from May 1 is not met.

According to Yemelyanov, overbought Magnit, which has been trading at highs since the start of February, was the gain leader, rising 6.43%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.74	197.25	17.208
Lukoil	-1.44	4,826.5	14.888
Gazprom	-2	190	13.878
Rosneft	-0.68	335.65	5.804
Tatneft	-1.54	550	5.471

(73.6894 rubles – U.S. $1)

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