Russian stocks fall on lack of positive drivers, profitable ideas

MOSCOW, Sep 20 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted on Wednesday because local investors saw no positive drivers for the market at a time when investment into bonds provides higher yield than in stocks, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.51% to 3,068.15 and the RTS decreased 0.08% to 1,002.54.

“The players on the foreign stock markets showed a moderate optimism near the local lows of the bourses on Wednesday. The markets were mainly consolidating ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve System’s meeting," Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

"The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS index regained a noticeable share of their intra-day losses, but remained under a downward pressure with risks to consolidate below psychological shresholds of 3,000 and 1,000 respectively over the next few sessions,” Kozhukhova said.

“During the day, the Russian investors tried to gain back a part of the morning contraction, but the market still lacks positive drivers in general,” she said.

The external background for the market was mixed during the day because the European bourses and the futures for the main U.S. indices were in the green zone, but the Brent oil price stayed in the red for the majority of the day, she said.

“The general market sentiment is that the bonds with a yield of 11–13% annually have become a substantial alternative to the stocks. At the very least, not any company is capable of paying dividends like that or of compensating a potentially risk-free strategy with a growth of capitalization," Otkritie Research analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

"In addition to that, it looks like the ruble’s rate has started entrenching around the current level for a long time ignoring the public opinion and ideas of economists,” Kochetkov said.

The growth of the shares of oil major Lukoil by 1.34% is a partial reflection of the trend. The company is one of the most generous among the payers of dividends, and the profitable current exchange rate of the ruble and high prices for oil bear great prospects for investors, he said.

Kozhukhova also said that oil company Gazprom Neft rose by 0.5% after a statement of its CEO Alexander Dyukov that the company might pay dividends for January–September if the shareholders approve the decision.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.79	254.72	15.685
Lukoil	+1.40	6432.50	11.277
Transneft pref	-0.66	143750.00	5.583
VTB	-0.23	0.02561	5.438
Gazprom	+0.15	169.19	5.393

(96.2236 rubles – U.S. $1)

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