Russian stocks fall on low trading volume ahead of new sanctions

MOSCOW, May 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged down on Friday with light investors’ activity thanks to remaining geopolitical risks and anticipation of new sanctions, analysts said. 

The MOEX Russia Index dropped 0.49% to 2,393.03 and the RTS decreased 2.85% to 1,088.02.

“The Russian stock market finished the day with a decrease of both indices as there are no external or internal reasons for any advance,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Negative sentiments prevailed on the global stock exchanges, while the U.S. market tried to recover, she added. The mood on the Russian stock market looked cautious on Friday ahead of the lengthy weekend, because the E.U. and the G7 can announce new anti-Russian sanctions early next week.

Alexei Golovinov, chief analyst at PSB Bank, said that a lack of ideas, remaining sanctions risks, a negative foreign background and a short working week resulted in extremely low investors’ activity with a trading volume of around 17 billion rubles.

Kozhukhova said that banking group TCS, gold producer Petropavlovsk, shipping operator Sovcomflot and oil company Gazprom Neft were among the worst performers.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+0.63%	240.1	4.300
Sberbank	-1.36%	123.1	3.759
Lukoil	-0.84%	4,635.5	1.744
Norilsk Nickel	+1.03%	21,766	933
Novatek	-2%	989	837

(66.2378 rubles – U.S. $1)

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