Russian stocks fall on alarming Meta report

MOSCOW, Feb 3 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Thursday following the rest of the markets disappointed by a report of IT giant Meta that indicated difficulties of integration with Apple, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell by 2.05% to 3,471.18, and the RTS index decreased by 2.18% to 1,431.99.

"The Russian market decreased again in line with the global trends. A Meta report disappointed investors, triggered a dramatic change of mood. The yield on protective instruments, including German bonds and the U.S. Treasuries, declined," Alexander Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Research, said.

He added that the European markets fell on fears of further toughening of the monetary policy and inflation acceleration. Producer prices rose by 26.2% in January after 23.7% in December.

The oil prices were under the pressure because of the U.S. dollar strengthening and low risk appetites.

According to Kochetkov, all Russian sectors were in the red zone, and finance and IT were the outsiders. Freedom Finance said that Sberbank was additionally pressured by reports of a looming bankruptcy of footwear retailer Paolo Conte, which reportedly owes Sberbank an undisclosed amount. 

Only RUSAL and VSMPO-Avisma grew, by 0.86% and 0.38% respectively, while the rest of the sector fell dragged down by Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) that decreased by 1.67% despite a moderately strong financial report.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.18	252.71	34.966
Gazprom	-2.07	324.82	16.744
Lukoil	-2.91	6835	8.257
Yandex	-3.25	3555.4	7.122
Norilsk Nickel	-1.22	21406	3.712

(76.4849 rubles – U.S. $1)  

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