Russian stocks fall as ruble keeps weakening, US futures not rising

MOSCOW, Apr 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Thursday as the U.S. stock market futures did not recover after Wednesday's losses, with the MOEX Russia Index declining further than the RTS index on the back of a weakening ruble, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index decreased by 0.10% to 2,498.30, and the RTS index dove by 2.07% to 967.11.

"The Russian stock market did not demonstrate unified dynamic in the middle of the session experiencing pressure of the weakening ruble," Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said. Later in the day, the MOEX Russia Index stopped the growth.

According to the analyst, the currency fell to the lows of April 2022 on the lack of positive fundamental factors, high demand for foreign currencies and their limited supply.

"The government does not show it is worried by the devaluation trend, while a lower ruble is good for the exporters and opens, in fact, new decrease horizons for the Russian currency," she said.

Dmitry Postolenko, head of managing company Pervaya’s department for fixed income securities management, said that the external background for the session was moderate to negative, as the U.S. S&P 500 index declined by 0.25% on Wednesday, while the futures remained nearly flat.

The ADP Research Institute said the U.S. employment growth in the private sector decelerated in March, which, together with a weaker than expected purchasing managers' index (PMI) and a report by the Institute for Supply Management made investors unsure about the growth prospects for the U.S. economy.

The oil price dynamics was muted, as the market was unsure about the global demand increase, Postolenko said.

According to Kozhukhova, the oil sector and other Russian exporters continued to grow because of the falling ruble.

Ozon was the market outsider dropping 3.31% after reporting an 11.2 billion ruble net loss for October–December, the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
RussNeft	+14.56	155	7.289
Sberbank	-0.85	214.31	7.211
Gazprom	-1.04	172.05	4.644
Lukoil	+0.83	4577.5	3.755
Transneft pref	+5.57	125950	2.903

(79.4961 rubles – U.S. $1)

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