Russian stocks fall on oil price decrease, weak foreign markets

MOSCOW, Jul 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market fell on Thursday on the back of an oil price decline and lower foreign markets, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.86% to 3,799.97, and the RTS index decreased 0.84% to 1,612.08.

"Sales dominated the Russian market. Weakness of the European markets and the fall of oil prices hurt it. The MOEX Russia Index is approaching an important support level," Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

Oil declined after the United Arab Emirates asked for a larger quota because the market needs more oil, and, according to some reports, they can be accomodated, Kochetkov said.

Also, a new D strain of the coronavirus has been spreading lately, against which the vaccines are less effective than against the first strain of the virus. This is why the oil traders are concerned about possible new lockdowns. Besides, Seoul and Singapore reintroduced strict social distancing, he said.

The U.S. stock market futures were under the pressure with the Dow Jones losing 0.4%, he said.

Kochetkov said that in Russia, the metals and power sectors were most vulnerable with the industry indices losing more than 1.6%.

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES) and Rosseti decreased (-8.33% and 2.63% respectively) because of a dividend cutoff, Mechel corrected downwards 0.80% after growth on Wednesday. The gold producers did better than the rest of the market as gold advanced to U.S. $1,840 per ounce as the world's key economies kept their economic incentives amid high inflation and low yields of state bonds.  

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-1.58	280.1	11.262
Lukoil	-1.9	6441	6.037
Sberbank	+0.27	302.31	6.011
Norilsk Nickel	-0.23	25676	5.296
ALROSA	-1.28	133.13	3.568

(74.1236 – U.S. $1)

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