Russian stocks fall on profit-taking, sales in Gazprom

MOSCOW, Jun 24 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged down on Friday as profit taking coupled with the sales in heavyweight Gazprom, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.54% to 2,391.51 and the RTS decreased 0.10% to 1,414.96.

“The Russian stock market has switched to sales since the middle of the day pummeled by profit-taking in many shares in spite the improvements in the external background,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index ended the week on a pessimistic note prior to the summit of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations and a possible announcement of new anti-Russian sanctions, Kozhukhova said.

“Gazprom contributed significantly to the negative market dynamics on the rumors about possible nationalization of a part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline by Germany,” Otkritie Research’s leading analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Gazprom lost 2.47% to 296 rubles.

The securities of internet companies VK Group and Yandex were among the gain leaders on Thursday, but on Friday profit taking dragged VK Group down by 2.51% to 302.80 rubles and Yandex by 1.02% to 1,645 rubles, Kochetkov said.

Kozhukhova also said that real estate developer Samolet gained 6.92% to 2,690 rubles as the was pleased with the company’s financial report. The net profit soared by 82% on the year to 9.5 billion rubles in January–May, while revenue surged by 97%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-2.47	296.00	10.779
Sberbank	+0.66	137.76	6.186
Novatek	-0.69	1003.00	1.547
PIK Group	+2.53	709.00	1.311
Lukoil	-1.20	4100.00	1.287

(53.3578 rubles – U.S. $1)

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