Russian stocks fall despite better background, rising oil

MOSCOW, Dec 7 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Thursday despite improvement of the foreign background and oil price rebound, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.99% to 2,103.15 and the RTS decreased 1.05% to 1,119.51.

“Ignoring the improvement of the foreign background, where global indices returned to growth after yesterday’s decline, Russian indices decided to settle in the “red” zone, although slowed their bearish move in the second half of the day and switched to consolidation at achieved levels,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said. “It seems that domestic investors got stuck on yesterday’s large-scale decline of oil, which fell below U.S. $62 (per barrel) and nearly lost its psychological level,” he said.

Global FX analyst Sergei Melnikov said that investors ignore Brent’s attempts to restore and a return of buyers to foreign stock floors. 

Multi-industry holding Sistema was the biggest outsider with its common shares slumping 14.93% on reports about a new lawsuit filed by oil major Rosneft and its unit Bashneft, as well as international rating agency S&P Global Ratings’ downgrading the holding’s long-term corporate credit ratings to B+ from BB-.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.76	219.81	8.479
Gazprom	-0.73	133.02	2.427
MTS	-6.38	248.00	1.818
Sistema	-14.93	10.20	1.478
Lukoil	-0.84	3374.50	1.426

(58.9281 rubles – U.S. $1)

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