Russian stocks fall as more western sanctions loom

MOSCOW, Mar 27 (PRIME) -- The stock market fell on Thursday due to resumed fears of anti-Moscow sanctions as U.S. President Barack Obama continued lambasting Russia’s attitude toward Ukraine, analysts said.

The MICEX went down 1.29% to 1,331.93, and the RTS fell 1.62% to 1,179.47.

“After some growth at the beginning of the week, Russian indices are losing all they had clawed back…Obama’s sharp statements in Brussels, where he said that peace is not close and the number of sanctions against Russia will only grow, played a large role in the fall of the Russian stock market,” Natalya Samoilova, director of Golden Hills-Capital’s analytical department, said.

Earlier in March, the U.S. and the E.U. imposed sanctions against some Russian officials and businessmen following Crimea’s accession, viewed by many western countries as an act of aggression on the part of Russia.

“The U.S. government is ready to permit exports of gas, which Europe consumes on daily basis, to reduce its dependence on Russia. Such a measure, if implemented, may hurt the Russian economy in the long-term prospect and undermine the value of its national stock assets,” BCS Express analyst Ivan Kopeikin said.

At present, Russia is one of the major energy suppliers to Europe, whose gas exports rose 23.9% in 2013 to 139.32 billion cubic meters.

A medium-term technical picture of the Russian market is still uncertain, Nord-Capital analyst Vitaly Manzhos said. “Probably, we will see a continued volatile consolidation of the MICEX index in a 1,270–1,370 range in the coming days,” he said.

The country’s largest bank by assets, Sberbank, was among the loss leaders tumbling 3.25% to 79.88 rubles after the release of worse-than-expected financial results for 2013, Manzhos said.

Power producer E.ON Russia bucked the market and rose 8.28% to 25.38 rubles on the news that it may spend its entire 18.9 billion ruble net profit for 2013 for dividends.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.25	79.88	14.949
Gazprom	-1.30	130.78	10.464
VTB Bank	+0.11	0.0365	3.272
Lukoil	-0.57	1909.00	1.938
Magnit	-2.00	7818.90	1.835

(35.4494 rubles – U.S. $1)

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