Russian stocks fall, as oil price plummets by closing bell

MOSCOW, Apr 27 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Wednesday as oil prices fell sharply by the closing bell.

The MICEX fell 0.61% to 1,934.77 and the RTS decreased 0.44% to 927.09.

The oil price well below $46 per barrel of Brent and the ruble tested 66 against the dollar by the end of the trading session.

Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant fell 0.72% to 413 rubles after the company’s board of directors announced plans to pay no dividends for 2015.

Oil producer Tatneft, whose net profit under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) fell 4% to 20 billion rubles in January–March, decreased by 1.77% to 194.4 rubles.

Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that retailer Magnit was still depressed by the fact that the company’s IFRS net profit contacted 13.03% (on the year) in January–March. Magnit went down 3.87% to 8,825 rubles.

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) was backed by the news that international rating agency Moody’s increased the company’s corporate rating to Ba1 from Ba2, Manzhos said. MMK rose 0.34% to 23.78 rubles.

Independent gas producer Novatek, whose IFRS net profit almost doubled to 58.2 billion rubles in January–March, increased 0.34% to 613 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.92	120.80	10.991
Gazprom	-1.23	160.99	6.362
Magnit	-3.87	8825.00	3.152
Lukoil	-2.25	2733.00	3.060
Rosneft	+0.93	334.95	2.664

(66.4559 rubles – U.S. $1)

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