Russian stocks fall hit by China's foreign trade statistics

MOSCOW, Aug 8 (PRIME) -- The MOEX Russia index closed flat and the RTS index decreased on Tuesday hurt the Chinese foreign trade statistics, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.04% to 3,085.31, and the RTS index fell 1.69% to 999.8.

"The Russian market declined in the first half of the day. At that, we can speak about a negative effect of the Chinese foreign trade statistics. China's exports and imports declined significantly below expectations, which may affect the results of Russian exporters," Otkritie Broker’s leading analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

As a result, Russian metals and mining companies declined, except Raspadskaya, (rising 7.54%) that is to publish a financial report under International Financial Reporting Standards soon.

According to Kochetkov, oil prices "had no other way to go" but fall after the Chinese statistics, as oil imports by the country fell by 18.8% in July on the month. Oil imports grew by 17% on the year, but China is still under tough quarantine measures and has significant commercial oil reserves. The Brent sank to U.S. $84 per barrel.

Tatneft and Surgutneftegas rose 0.11% and 2.1% respectively, Kochetkov said.

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) corrected down after soaring by 60% in four sessions, he said.

The U.S. market fell as the Chinese statistics meant a decline of the U.S. exports. The downgrading of small and medium U.S. banks by agency Moody’s Services added to the pressure, Kochetkov said.

Freedom Finance Global’s Senior Analyst Natalya Milchakova said that a 7.13 billion ruble undistributed net profit of Territorial Generating Company-1 (TGC-1) for the previous years was probably behind a mysterious growth of the shares by 2.47%. At the same time, the dividend issue would unlikely be solved until the former assets of Finland's Fortum find a new permanent owner, she said.

Veles Broker analyst Yuri Kravchenko said that the oversold MOEX Russia Index erased the losses in the evening.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.61	263.52	15.432
NCSP	-9.74	14.83	11.764
Lukoil	+0.52	6080	8.669
VTB Bank	+0.75	0.02627	5.249
Gazprom	-0.24	172.1	4.655

(96.5668 rubles – U.S. $1)

End