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

MOSCOW, Jul 7 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Tuesday amid uncertainty over the Greek debt issue and the ruble depreciation backed by falling oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.44% to 1,614.14 and the RTS decreased 1.89% to 885.78.

“The external background remains stably negative. Key European stock indexes are trading in a minus zone reacting to outstanding uncertainty over the Greek debt problem,” Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said.

An E.U. emergency summit will take place in Brussels later on Tuesday, where Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may provide new proposals to potential creditors, InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.  

“The ruble remains under pressure of falling oil prices and the central bank’s currency purchases from the market,” Nigmatullin also said. Brent oil prices fell to slightly above U.S. $55.5 per barrel as trading closed in Moscow.

The market is also waiting for a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear power program, investment company Olma’s analyst Anton Startsev said.

The country’s biggest lender Sberbank closed 0.5% higher despite posting weak financial results under Russian Accounting Standards for January–June.

Major fertilizer producer Uralkali decreased 0.3% on reports saying its production of potassium chloride fell by 5% on the year to 5.7 million tonnes in January–June.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.47	68.77	7.143
Gazprom	-0.35	142.50	4.149
Lukoil	+0.20	2465.00	2.591
Norilsk Nickel	+0.68	9340.00	2.147
VTB	+0.13	0.07460	1.257

(56.4112 rubles – U.S. $1)

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