Russian stocks fall on Greek, Chinese woes, weak oil, low ruble

MOSCOW, Jul 8 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on Wednesday depressed by the Greek woes and the falling Chinese stock market on the back of the ruble weakening and low oil prices, but the fall of the domestic trading floors was limited due a lack of foreign investors, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.19% to 1,595.00 and the RTS decreased 1.14% to 875.67.

The fall on the Russian stock market sped up on Wednesday due to a number of reasons, Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said. “There are more than enough reasons for such dynamics. Both the situation on the Chinese stock market and the protracted Greek crisis put moods of global investors under pressure. And in the case of Russia, oil, which cheapened by 9.5% during first four days of July, is still a significant factor,” she said.

The Shanghai Composite, which fell by 5.9% despite measures undertaken by the Chinese authorities, depressed some Asian trading floors and the Russian stock market, according to the analyst.

Oil prices quite stabilized after the fall on Tuesday, but are still low and unlikely to rebound to above U.S. $60 in the near future that will put global stocks and particularly the Russian stock market under pressure, Andrei Dirgin, director of the analytical department at Alfa-Forex, said. Oil consolidated below $57.5 per barrel of Brent by the end of the trading session in Moscow.

The oil price weakening was triggered by the crisis on the Chinese stock market and negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, which are close to successful completion, Kirsanova said, adding that the final round of the negotiations is scheduled for Friday.

The ruble weakening was caused by the Chinese and European woes in line with the central bank’s foreign currency purchases from the market, Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Finam, said. The national currency fell to about 57.5 against the U.S. dollar by the closing bell.

At the same time, the decrease of the Russian stock market was limited as the number of foreign investors on the domestic market fell significantly during the last two years due to the Ukrainian crisis and actually there are few foreign sellers and buyers, Vladimir Bragin, head of Alfa-Capital’s analytical department, said.

Aluminum giant UC RUSAL fell 6.95% as prices for aluminum continued a downward trend, Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Metals giant Norilsk Nickel fell 2.57% on the back of significantly decreased prices for nickel, the analyst said.

Debt-ridden Mechel, another metals giant, fell 6.43% due to company’s financial problems, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.51	67.73	10.795
Gazprom	-0.70	141.50	4.073
Norilsk Nickel	-2.57	9100.00	3.107
Lukoil	+0.20	2470.00	2.036
Surgutneftegas pref	-2.33	40.105	1.656

(57.2192 rubles – U.S. $1)

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