Russian stocks fall as shares of oil firms underperform

MOSCOW, Sep 26 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Monday as volatile oil prices were unable to provide consistent support to the market, while shares of oil and gas companies underperformed due to possible changes in the country’s taxation system, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.69% to 1,997.94 and the RTS decreased 0.72% to 986.83.

“The talks on changes in the oil and gas sector’s taxation turned out to be stronger of a factor than growth of oil prices…Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that the goal of changes is to stimulate production at green fields, but the market does not trust these words, as the government is only aimed at increasing the budget revenue,” Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Gas giant Gazprom and independent gas producer Novatek lost 1.05% to 135.26 rubles and 0.39% to 662.40 rubles, respectively, and oil majors Lukoil and Rosneft fell 0.83% to 3,060 rubles and 1.60% to 350.35 rubles, respectively, due to recent talks about changes in taxation of the sector, Kochetkov said.

The Brent oil price grew 3.43% to U.S. $47.52 per barrel as of 6.23 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Yegor Dakhtler, an analyst at investment company Veles Capital, said that despite skeptical attitude toward the Monday–Wednesday OPEC meeting, the market still hopes that it will at least create some ground for more active actions of the organization in the future.

“But the growth of oil prices did not prevent the MICEX index from a downward correction as Russian investors are very cautious before OPEC makes its decision,” Dakhtler said, adding that the European and U.S. markets also fell prior to the meeting in Algeria even despite positive local macroeconomic statistics.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that shares of uncut diamond mining giant ALROSA increased 1.15% to 89.99 rubles due to the company’s recent statement that its sales jumped by 58% on the year to $243 million in August.

Common shares of Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVAZ increased 2.39% to 9.86 rubles as investors were still reacting to news that the company plans to offer 3.281 billion additional common shares. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that the government will prolong support of the car industry, which had a positive impact on the company, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.58	149.10	7.819
Gazprom	-1.05	135.26	3.451
Lukoil	-0.83	3060.00	1.649
ALROSA	+1.15	89.99	1.122
Magnit	+1.78	10789.00	0.945

(63.8642 rubles – U.S. $1)

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