Russian stocks fall on Norilsk Nickel, oil price decrease

MOSCOW, Jul 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Thursday pushed down by a downward correction of Norilsk Nickel and oil price fall, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.19% to 2,782.43, and the RTS Index decreased 0.89% to 1,234.42.

"Like yesterday, the Russian stock market looked weak today, losing 1% of the MOEX Russia Index at closing of trade," Alor Broker analyst Alexei Antonov said.

Antonov said that Norilsk Nickel resumed its decrease after strengthening and lost about 2% of capitalization. Investors were earlier encouraged by the news that the company would dispute the amount of compensation for a fuel spill in Norilsk but, according to Antonov, it is unclear how tough the government stance on the issue will be.

He said that it is also unclear what Norilsk Nickel will do with the interim dividend payment.

The oil prices hit a resistance level of U.S. $43.5 per barrel and started to slump at about 4:00 p.m., Moscow time, Antonov said.

Valery Yemelyanov, analyst at investment company Freedom Finance, said that the foreign stock market indices demonstrated mixed dynamics. Appetite for developing markets assets was moderate -- the MSCI Emerging Markets Index grew by 0.5%.

Antonov said that Polyus and Polymetal (+0.97%) rose despite being overbought as the gold prices exceeded $1,800 per troy ounce and can reach an all-time high of $1,920.

Yemelyanov said that Lukoil, Detsky Mir (-0.94%) and Wholesale Generating Company-2 (WGC-2) (-4.15%) declined on dividend cutoffs.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.07	208.72	9.056
Lukoil	-6.81	5085.5	8.436
Gazprom	-0.87	199.42	7.761
Norilsk Nickel	-2.21	18550	7.607
Polyus	+2.99	13300	4.255

(71.2379– U.S. $1)

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