Russian stocks fall on low demand for risk, Gazprom woes

MOSCOW, Aug 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted on Friday as demand for risk at the foreign stock floors decreased, while heavyweight shares of gas giant Gazprom experienced sales due to the fire that broke out at the company’s gas facility near Novy Urengoi, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.74% to 3,805.36 and the RTS decreased 1.24% to 1,632.87.

“The Russian stock indices contracted on Friday in reaction to weakening of demand for risk on foreign floors. The trade in Asia finished mainly in the red zone, and the European bourses also started the day in a negative way. In the previous days, markets of the Old World and the New World renewed their records thanks to positive corporate reports, and investors have likely taken a pause to wait for releases of data on labor statistics in the U.S,” Finam’s analyst Igor Dodonov said.

Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the optimistic mood of commodity markets and some stock exchanges did not transfer to the Russian market on Friday in spite of the inspiring data on the U.S. labor market released in the day. This can be partially explained by profit taking after achievements of record highs.

“Downward corrections happened in some issuers on the Russian sites, which only exacerbated the contraction together with strengthening of the U.S. dollar,” she said.

Dmitry Babin, analyst at BCS World of Investment, said that the fire that broke out at a gas processing plant of Gazprom exerted pressure on the entire market.

“At one moment, Gazprom was losing almost 3%, but it regained a half of the loss after that. Gazprom is one of the heavyweights, it occupies about 16% in the MOEX Russia Index, so its dynamics always have a serious impact on stock indicators,” Babin said.

Gazprom lost 1.38% to 282 rubles.

Kozhukhova also said that shares of top bank Sberbank gained 1.32% to 320 rubles in reaction to the financial report under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) that the bank published on Friday. Its net profit in July hit a record of 126.8 billion rubles, and in January–July, the net profit surged by 80% to 721.6 billion rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-1.38	282.00	24.692
Sberbank	+1.32	320.00	16.616
Lukoil	-1.28	6231.00	4.430
Norilsk Nickel	-1.29	25166.00	3.228
ALROSA	+0.01	138.99	2.856

(73.1680 rubles – U.S. $1)

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