Russian stocks fall on lack of drivers, profit taking

MOSCOW, Nov 25 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted on Friday mainly because the national market lacked drivers and decided to take their profit before the weekend, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.71% to 2,195.17 and the RTS decreased 0.45% to 1,141.07.

“The Russian stock market fell moderately as it did not receive significant drivers for growth either from the inside or from the outside,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

“The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index fell below 2,210 and 1,150, but this movement can be considered consolidation caused by the lack of new growth ideas.”

Finam analyst Zarina Saidova said that the U.S. celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, meaning the U.S. bourses were closed yesterday and will close earlier than usual on Friday.

“Besides that, we should note that the buyers rarely prevailed on the national market on Fridays in the past few months, as the players are trying to take their profits at the end of the week,” Saidova said.

Kozhukhova also said that the shares of mobile operator MTS outperformed the market and gained 1.46% to 236.90 rubles as the company was included into the MOEX Blue Chip index, while Polymetal International was excluded from it.

The shares of Yandex N.V., the parent company of internet giant Yandex, shrank by 4.93% to 2,025 rubles after the company had published a statement that it was considering spinning off the Russian business and then sell it to the local management.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.20	136.33	3.641
Yandex	-4.93	2025.00	3.352
Polyus	-1.27	6978.00	1.880
Gazprom	+0.13	169.18	1.582
Lukoil	+0.13	4670.00	0.984

(60.3966 rubles – U.S. $1)

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