Russian stocks fall on new EU sanctions, de facto Ukraine violence

MOSCOW, Feb 16 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on Monday as the E.U. published an expanded sanctions list amid the news that violence continues in Ukraine's east despite a ceasefire treaty signed on February 12, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 2.04% to 1,800.59 and the RTS decreased 1.83% to 897.35.

“The MICEX and the RTS unloaded after being overbought last week. The recent stock market growth was connected with expectations of a ceasefire in the east of Ukraine that logically should have resulted in a slowdown of Western sanctions’ step-by-step implementation,” Vitaly Manzhos, analyst at Nord-Capital, said.

The stock market was pressured by the news that the ceasefire was breached occasionally and the E.U. announcement of the extended list of sanctions-hit individuals and entities, Manzhos said.

“After a sustainable growth of Russian most liquid stocks at the end of last week some investors decided to take profit while waiting for clarification of the Ukrainian conflict situation,” Veles Capital analyst Alexander Kostyukov said.

AFK Sistema rose 6.37% to 20.05 rubles after the Moscow Arbitration Court sided with the company in a Bashneft purchase case and ordered Ural Rakhimov’s investment fund Ural-Invest to compensate 70.7 billion ruble losses to Sistema, Kostyukov said.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Monday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.85	70.00	9.230
Gazprom	-1.36	160.19	4.771
Lukoil	-3.67	3020.00	2.760
Rosneft	-3.62	279.70	2.292
Magnit	-2.69	11920.00	1.898

(65.0862 rubles – U.S. $1)

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