Russian stocks fall on European floors decline, weaker ruble

MOSCOW, Jan 19 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Thursday amid a decline on major European floors and a depreciated ruble, while a moderate increase of oil prices failed to support the indices, analysts said.

The MICEX decreased 0.36% to 2,162.25 and the RTS fell 1.31% to 1,136.62.

“Negative dynamics on European floors, where main indices are losing around 0.1%, encourage sales of Russian securities,” Finam analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

The Brent oil price is trading around its low bottom of U.S. $54 per barrel, Zvarich said.

Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said the “energy prices were under pressure of fears that the process of balancing will linger for a longer period of time, as not all countries are ready to participate in this process.”

Gas giant Gazprom fell 1.31% despite reporting that its net profit attributable to shareholders increased 5.3% on the year to 709.321 billion rubles in January–September 2016, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The country’s second biggest lender VTB Bank grew 0.12% after First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said he saw no need in privatizing a 10.9% stake in the bank in 2017, Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Food retailer Dixy Group dropped 2.77% after reporting that its revenue fell 0.6% to 27.796 billion rubles in December 2016.

Steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) lost 1.32% after saying that its steel output grew 3% on the quarter in October–December to 4.223 million tonnes, but sales fell 15% to 3.598 million tonnes in the period due to a seasonal reduction of demand on the Russian market.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.64	166.30	6.375
Gazprom	-1.31	150.85	6.298
RusHydro	+4.53	1.0965	3.070
Rosneft	-1.61	380.75	2.166
Lukoil	-0.9	3195.00	2.027

(59.1830 rubles – U.S. $1)

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