Russian stocks fall discouraged by negative global background

MOSCOW, Mar 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed lower on Thursday discouraged by a modestly negative external background amid investors’ disappointment from delay of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.52% to 2,457.79 and the RTS decreased 0.60% to 1,181.96.

“The Russian stock market lost around 0.5% due to a lower appetite for risk… (due to) a moderately negative external background. Demand for risky assets is declining,” analyst at Freedom Finance Anastasia Sosnova said.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the local benchmarks were discouraged by the global environment worsening after the U.S. and China had possibly decided to put off trade negotiations between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to at least April.

Power producer Territorial Generating Company-1 (TGC-1) was among the best performers adding 3.01% to 0.008776 rubles thanks to a sound International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) financial report for 2018 demonstrating a rise of 31.5%, Kozhukhova said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.14%	203.66	8.973
Norilsk Nickel	+0.74%	13952	5.120
Gazprom	-0.4%	152.68	3.064
Lukoil	-0.02%	5608	2.529
Rosneft	-0.42%	398.3	2.085

(65.5890 rubles – U.S. $1)

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