Russian stocks fall as oil slips, traders worry over sanctions

MOSCOW, Dec 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Wednesday because oil prices started to lose earlier gains, while traders worried over a possible rollover of European sanctions against Russia and a key rate rise by the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed), analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.80% to 2,229.05 and the RTS went down 1.31% to 1,148.92.

“Local trade participants failed to ignore a noticeable deterioration of the external background. Furthermore, the MICEX and the RTS are increasingly overbought, which favors a beginning of medium-term profit taking in the majority of Russian stocks,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Investors are expecting the U.S. Fed to increase the key rate by 0.25% later on Wednesday. The European Council is expected to decide on rollover of anti-Russian sanctions on Thursday, which are the most prominent concerns, Manzhos said.

Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said that an oil price slide below U.S. $55 per barrel was one of the sell-off triggers on the Russian market. European markets shed 0.2–0.4% which was also a negative factor for Russia, he said.

According to Manzhos, the securities of Rosneft were in high demand, as traders are still under impression from an unexpected ending to the privatization story last week. The fact that the shares were bought by foreign investors is positive for Rosneft.

Among smaller companies, M. Video soared 7.68% on the news that the largest shareholder of the chain will sell the shares to group Safmar for $7 per security, which is about 426 rubles in today’s rates.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.81	173.7	9.374
Gazprom	-1.1	157.2	7.176
Rosneft	+1.32	403.05	2.726
Norilsk Nickel	-1.98	10590	2.245
Lukoil	+0.71	3352	2.003

(61.0690 rubles – U.S. $1)

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