Russian stocks fall in correction as investors take profits

MOSCOW, Dec 22 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks contracted on Thursday as investors started taking profits ahead of the Christmas holidays and with no support from falling Western floors, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.70% to 2,174.64 and the RTS decreased 1.32% to 1,125.80.

“On Thursday the Russian stock market continued its downward correction and increased the downwards dynamics of the MICEX index…Major trade floors were also in the red zone today as the trade volume contracted prior to Christmas holidays,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that profit taking dominated trading, especially since “the number of working days to do this is very small.”

Kirsanova said that oil prices also had a negative impact on the market. “Yesterday the Brent oil spot price lost about 2% on the background of an unexpected increase of oil reserves in the U.S.” after the Department of Energy’s data showed a 2.3 million barrel increase after four consecutive weeks of reduction of the reserves, she said.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that preferred shares of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft lost 3.09% to 191,400 rubles on recent news that the Federal Antimonopoly Service approved an increase of the 2017 tariff with a ratio of 0.9 to inflation. The tariff for pumping of oil via the Zapolyarye–Purpe pipeline was set at 399 rubles per tonne, significantly less than Transneft expected.

Shares of Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant went up 3.33% to 651 rubles after Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) sent a buyout offer to minority shareholders of the plant at a price of 681 rubles per share, which represents a 4.7% premium to their current price, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.70	170.00	11.520
Gazprom	-1.82	150.27	4.501
Bashneft	-0.08	3530.00	2.947
Lukoil	-2.06	3368.00	2.199
Norilsk Nickel	-0.04	10190.00	2.087

(61.1092 rubles – U.S. $1)

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