Russian stocks fall on US sanctions extension, oil price fall

MOSCOW, Mar 4 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on Wednesday amid the U.S. prolonging the sanctions introduced against Moscow a year ago for another year and falling oil prices as well, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 2.67% to 1,759.35 and the RTS went down 2.98% to 889.68.

Late on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama prolonged sanctions against Russian companies by one more year because Russia is still a threat to the U.S. national security.

“Anti-Russian sanctions introduced by the U.S. will be in force for at least a year, while oil prices, which earlier acted as the market’s major driver, stand slightly above U.S. $60 per barrel,” InstaForex analyst Anton Fomin said, adding that many investors in the Russian market preferred to take profit.

E.U. representatives also said that sanctions against Russia could be abolished only if the Minsk agreements are fully complied with.

Oil major Lukoil’s shares fell 1.81% after the company said Tuesday its 2014 US GAAP net profit fell 27.5% to $4.746 billion.

Oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, which reported a 4.7% increase in 2014 net profit to 11.8 billion rubles, closed 2.33% down. Investors ignored the firm’s solid financial results as the company is still affected by Western sanctions and was recently downgraded by Moody’s rating agency, Fomin from InstaForex said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-4.29	72.31	8.754
Gazprom	-3.14	154.00	5.014
Lukoil	-1.81	2955.00	3.131
Rosneft	-4.35	264.95	1.815
Norilsk Nickel	-2.96	11140.00	1.594

(62.3649 rubles – U.S. $1)

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