Russian stocks fall on geopolitical tensions, new COVID surge fears

MOSCOW, Dec 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with a considerable decrease on Monday, as geopolitical pressure on Russia continued to worsen, and fears of the new Omicron strain of COVID coming to the country, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 2.63% to 3,810.10 and the RTS decreased 2.77% to 1,622.07.

“Pessimistic sentiment prevailed in the Russian stock market on Monday. The mood on the world platforms was mixed today, Europe was on the plus side, and Asian platforms were mostly in the negative, while futures on U.S. indices were trading multidirectional,” Yevgeny Linchik of Sber Asset Management said.

As Linchik said, markets remain under direct influence of concern over the external background and the development of the situation around the new Omicron strain of the COVID virus in Russia.

According to BCS Investment Group’s Dmitry Babin, the worsening geopolitical situation exerted pressure on domestic stocks today, as new anti-Russian publications appeared in the Western media over the weekend.

There was no obvious reason to sink the securities of heavyweight companies, but the main attack of the sellers just turned against them today, Vladislav Silayev of Alfa Capital said, noting that the shares of TCS Group, VK, Yandex, Sberbank, as well as large oil companies, fell today.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-4.91	304.91	27.975
Gazprom	-3.03	335.5	22.001
Lukoil	-0.36	6615.5	7.082
Yandex	-2.38	4979	3.679
TCS Group	-9.28	6629.4	3.579

(73.7426 rubles – U.S. $1)

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