Russian stocks fall on fears of oil tax rise, exporters gains’ cuts

MOSCOW, Sep 23 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fall on Wednesday on worries of investors about plans and disagreements of authorities to raise the mineral extraction tax (MET) on oil and President’s Vladimir Putin’s order to consider the possibility of allocating additional revenue of exporters from the ruble devaluation to the budget, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.42% to 1,640.70 and the RTS decreased 0.95% to 782.07.

The MICEX fell for the fourth day in a row with sales becoming more intensive over the last two days. “The main reason of such dynamics is the tax maneuver which is now being discussed by authorities,” Vasily Oleinik, an analyst at ITinvest, said.

The Finance Ministry suggested raising the mineral extraction tax on oil in order to balance the budget, and in this case oil companies may lose 15–20% of their net profit that depressed investors, which understand, that if the tax is increased, taxation in the metallurgical sector and other export-oriented branches may be also adjusted, Oleinik said.

Russian oil companies have already suggested raising the gas output tax instead, some media reported earlier on Wednesday.

Market participants were also depressed by President Vladimir Putin’s idea of making exporters contribute the additional revenue from devaluation of the ruble to the state budget, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said, adding that the government is likely to execute the order.

Russian stocks, which mainly comprise exporters’ securities, may lose their attractiveness in the middle term and also hurt conservative dividend strategies, as traditionally exporters pay highest dividends, Manzhos said.

Preferred stocks of petrochemical company Nizhnekamskneftekhim fell 20.67% on the news that the company’s board of directors is considering stopping dividend payments for a period of an n ethylene project implementation, as well as issuing additional shares to finance the project, Veles Capital’s analysts said in a research note.

Fertilizer producer Uralkali fell 6.97% after the company closed its bidding book for participants of a buyback scheduled for Friday, Veles Capital said.

Metals giant Norilsk Nickel fell 4.61% due to an interim dividend register closure, Veles Capital said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.87	73.74	6.930
Gazprom	-1.54	134.30	6.115
Norilsk Nickel	-4.61	10200.00	5.040
Lukoil	-1.03	2203.00	4.182
Rosneft	-3.19	237.00	1.823

(66.1747 rubles – U.S. $1)

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