Russian stocks fall on oil, metals price decrease

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Thursday on the back of falling oil and metals prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell ин 1.61% to 4,218.63, and the RTS index decreased ин 1.92% to 1,868.16.

"By the middle of the trading session, the Russian stock market indices accelerated the decline, including due to the deterioration of the external factors," Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The oil market mood was negative, as the nearest Brent and WTI futures fell by about 1% in the middle of the session in Russia, correcting to the support levels of U.S. $84 and $82.50 respectively after reaching highs of many years, Kozhukhova said.

The European stock market trend was moderately negative, with the Euro Stoxx index falling 0.3%. The U.S. market was moderately negative before the opening, and the S&P 500 futures decreased 0.3% as well. The U.S. statistics to be released on Thursday might indicate weakening economic growth, which was a negative factor, the analyst said.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst for global analysis at Otkritie Research, said that the European metals and mining sector was an outsider of the session on deceleration of growth of real estate prices in China and troubles with sales of assets of China Evergrande.

He added that lower metals prices also pressured the Russian indices.

He added that investors expected an increase of the key rate of the central bank by 50 basis points on Friday, which would form the conditions when fixed-rate instruments become more interesting than shares.

NLMK rose after publishing a strong financial report for July–September, analysts said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-2.15	362	15.179
Sberbank	-1.64	364.1	8.149
Lukoil	-2.83	7228.5	6.292
NLMK	+1.71	224.48	5.881
Moscow Exchange	-1.5	170.9	4.303

(71.0555 – U.S. $1)

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