Russian stocks fall as oil demand recovery under threat

MOSCOW, Mar 25 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Thursday as fading hopes for demand recovery depressed the oil price, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.32% to 3,439.30, and the RTS Index decreased 1.39% to 1,417.16.

"The trading volume in the main section of the Moscow Exchange has reached only 27 billion rubles by the middle of the day. Oil, gas, as well as chemicals and petrochemicals were the weakest sectors,” Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

“They both declined by about 0.9%. Brent was again under pressure due to worsening expectations of demand recovery as the COVID-19 cases grew in the key regions, including Europe and India."

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the external background for the session was mixed as the oil market demonstrated a moderately negative trend with Brent and WTI futures losing about 1.5%.

The oil prices can continue to rise from recent lows as the container carrier stuck in the Suez Canal will likely be removed no earlier than the start of next week, Kozhukhova said.

Kozhukhova said that the European markets decreased with the Euro Stoxx 50 falling 0.3% but the U.S. stock market futures demonstrated a moderately positive trend -- the S&P 500 gained 0.1%. the market waits for a release of U.S. gross domestic product and weekly unemployment figures for October–December.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Norilsk Nickel	-1.43	21020	10.112
Sberbank	-0.22	285.17	9.069
Lukoil	-0.92	6105.5	6.558
Gazprom	-0.18	223.25	6.193
Yandex	-3.42	4684.2	4.434

(76.1535 – U.S. $1)

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