Russian stocks fall on US tax reform issues, APEC trade rows

MOSCOW, Nov 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Friday on the back of a fall of global stock market indices amid troubles in discussion of U.S. tax reform and on expectations of trade disagreements to emerge in statements from an APEC summit, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.66% to 2,169.26 and the RTS decreased 0.40% to 1,156.74.

“On Friday, November 10, the Russian stock market is weakening following global stock markets which are traded in the red zone in a context of worsening of the U.S. tax reform adoption prospects,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

She said that U.S.–Asia trade conflicts were bound to emerge during an APEC summit started on Friday, which spurred volatility on global markets. InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said that a lack of clarity on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump during the summit was adding to the investors’ dread. 

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the market optimism in the morning was in many respects due to a surge of Sberbank’s share price to 229.4 rubles. But in the middle of the day, Sberbank erased some of the gains.

Gazprom traded in the green zone on the back of a report by media that executives of the company do not rule out its split, Kochetkov said.

Gazprom Neft fell 1.23% as a dividend proposal by the board of directors did not suit the market, he said.

MMK rose 1.71% on hopes that the company’s securities will be included in MSCI Russia. TGC-14 soared 11.93% on news about a possible sale of 90% in the company by Russian Railways and pension fund Blagosostoyanie. Mosenergo grew 0.83% on impressive financials, Kochetkov said.

Rosneft was one of the market outsiders, falling 2.24% on fears of Venezuela’s PDVSA default, the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.07	217.7	31.904
Gazprom	+0.76	132.5	6.231
Sberbank pref	-0.50	190.1	3.650
Magnit	-3.03	7175	3.193
Lukoil	-0.70	3344.5	1.905

(59.2527 rubles – U.S. $1)

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