Russian stocks fall on European pessimism, Syrian woes

MOSCOW, Oct 2 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Thursday as European floors fell on weak manufacturing PMI and amid rising worries over participation of the country’s air forces in operations in Syria, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.97% to 1,626.97 and the RTS decreased 1.02% to 781.65.

“A military operation started by (Russian) air forces in Syria triggered a negative reaction of investors despite comments of Russian representatives that airstrikes and the presence of Russian air forces in Syria is ‘temporary’ and that all actions are discussed and coordinated with U.S. authorities and do not contradict the international law,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said.

The Russian market was following a growth trend of the global markets in the first half of the day, but later had to go down to the red zone after European trading floors lost optimism as the euro zone Manufacturing PMI eased to a 5-month low of 52.0 in September, according to Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex.

The Brent price slipped to below U.S. $48 per barrel which also provided no support for the Russian market, some analysts said.

Aeroflot, which was expected to bail out air carrier Transaero, rose 2.47% on Sberbank CEO German Gref’s statement that the troubled airline may go into bankruptcy, Vasily Tanurkov, an analyst at Veles Capital, said. Transaero fell 11.86%.

Russian companies, focused on national demand, outperformed the market with Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System (FGC UES) rising 1.71% and Magnit growing 1.46%, among others, Tanurkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.05	74.51	8.233
Gazprom	-1.23	132.90	4.543
Lukoil	-2.63	2184.00	3.929
Norilsk Nickel	-1.12	9394.00	2.232
Rosneft	-2.08	237.90	1.112

(65.7364 rubles – U.S. $1)

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