Russian stocks fall in line with oil prices, weak ruble

MOSCOW, Apr 2 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Monday after morning growth in line with falling oil prices and a depreciated ruble, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.63% to 2,256.64 and the RTS decreased 1.23% to 1,234.06.

“The Russian stock market lost growth of the first half of trading by the end of session on Monday. The reason for the predominance of sales in the second half of the day was dynamics on the energy market, where Brent oil futures could not hold the positions under U.S. $70, moving back to the level of $68.7 per barrel,” Freedom Finance senior analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

Negative sentiment was added by a fall in the U.S. indices after long holidays, with Dow Jones losing 0.8% and S&P500 shrinking by 1.2%, the analyst said.

Shares of Far-Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), part of Summa Group, dropped 21.72% on arrest of the group’s owner Ziyavudin Magomedov.

Shares of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) lost 1.61% after reporting a decrease in 2017 net profit.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.41	249.99	9.031
Gazprom	-1.41	140.32	2.627
Lukoil	-0.14	3955.50	1.729
Norilsk Nickel	+0.37	10800.00	1.044
Magnit	+0.85	4720.00	0.964

(57.2649 rubles – U.S. $1)

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