Russian stocks fall on oil price drop, lack of positive news

MOSCOW, Mar 23 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Wednesday pressured by an oil price decline and overall moderately negative foreign background, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 1.24% to 1,879.89 and the RTS decreased 2.66% to 865.40.

Russian stocks first of all reacted to negative oil dynamics, as Brent quotations stepped back from the upper limit of an earlier established range, Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said.

“A reduction of the Russian stock market intensified in the second half of the day, as Brent oil price fell below U.S. $41 per barrel amid a growth of the U.S. oil reserves,” Finam analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

The U.S. oil reserves rose by 9.4 million barrels last week, while experts projected a growth by only 3.09 million barrels.

“Despite the fact that a negative effect from Brussels blasts is already over, our benchmarks faced a complete absence of positive news,” Larson&Holz expert Dmitry Salakhov said.

Oil and gas companies were among outsiders on Wednesday, Vasily Tanurkov, deputy head of Veles Capital’s stock market research department, said. Oil major Rosneft fell 2.78%, oil major Lukoil decreased 1.92%, and gas giant Gazprom fell 2.42%. Oil company Bashneft dropped 0.70% after reporting that its net profit declined 19.9% to 52.306 billion rubles in 2015, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Hydropower giant RusHydro fell 1.13% despite reports that its net profit rose 12.5% to 27.159 billion rubles in 2015, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Shares of power utility Irkutskenergo jumped 15.17% on reports that power holding Inter RAO resumed talks to sell its 40% stake in the company.

Shares of fertilizer producer PhosAgro, which posted a 36.436 billion ruble IFRS net profit in 2015 against a 13.395 billion ruble net loss in 2014, grew 0.53%.

Uncut diamond monopoly ALROSA closed 0.49% higher as the company said it increased revenue from diamond sales by 25% on the year to $776 million in January–February.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.14	109.10	11.472
Gazprom	-2.42	146.00	4.777
Lukoil	-1.92	2687.50	3.287
Rosneft	-2.78	309.20	2.123
Norilsk Nickel	-2.12	9240.00	1.829

(67.7764 rubles – U.S. $1)

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