Russian stocks fall on profit taking ahead of long holidays

MOSCOW, Jun 11 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on Thursday on taking profits ahead of the long holidays and amid expectations of further cuts in the key rate at a June 15 meeting of the central bank’s board, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.05% to 1,652.24 and the RTS decreased 0.90% to 950.38.

Investors were taking profits trying to minimize risks ahead of the long holidays, Alexander Kostyukov, an analyst at Veles Capital, said.

Russian stock indices fell on Thursday amid fears that the central bank may continue to decrease its rates way too little than the market hopes, Maxim Krylov, director of the Golden Hills-Kapital’s analytical department, said. “A too little cut of rates will not allow attraction of enough loans to the economy and this will leave little hope for a growth of Russian companies and thus for an increase in the ruble-denominated MICEX,” he said.

The market will be under pressure at the start of next week due to the central bank’s board meeting on June 15, where it may cut the key rate, and the meeting of the U.S.’ Federal Reserve (Fed) to be held on June 16–17, as the regulator may provide clearer guidance on terms of its rate’s increase, Kostyukov said.

UTair rose 5.91% after media reported that MTS Bank asked the Arbitration Court of the Tyumen Region to halt proceedings under its bankruptcy claim against UTair-Leasing, UTair’s subsidiary, and did not ruled out a possibility of a settlement out of court, Anton Fomin, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

Magnit rose 2.16% following an upward trend after publishing on Tuesday a 28.7% increase in operating revenue, Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said.

RusHydro rose 0.92% as media reported that power delivery of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant to the united energy system of Siberia will rise by 16% in 2015, Kirsanova said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.45	72.55	8.835
Lukoil	-1.74	2506.90	2.751
Gazprom	-0.14	145.40	2.718
Magnit	+2.16	11130.00	1.969
VTB	-0.15	0.08040	1.824

(54.8219 rubles – U.S. $1)

End