Russian stocks fall on ruble dynamics, profit taking

MOSCOW, May 27 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Friday on the back of a further weakening of the ruble’s exchange rate, which also caused sales in the shares of exporters, but the expectations of dividend recommendations from some companies resulted in their shares outperforming the market, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell by 0.23% to 2,407.59 while the RTS decreased 3.47% to 1,133.94.

"In the second half of the day, the buyers gave up, as all the news was already priced in and there are holidays ahead. The companies in the metals sector and the finance securities looked worst of all," Management company Alfa-Capital’s senior trader Vladislav Silayev said.

Promsvyazbank’s senior analyst Yegor Zhilnikov said that the oil and gas sector was the market bellwether, as investors expected dividend announcements from Rosneft and Bashneft following the Thursday recommendation of gas giant Gazprom’s board of directors to pay 52.53 rubles per share, providing the yield of about 17%, Zhilnikov said. Rosneft gained 2.50% to 401.50 rubles, while Bashneft’s preferred shares grew by 14.09% to 809.50 rubles.

The other sectors, outside of the power sector, where dividend yields are usually high, looked rather bleak, as construction companies continued their fall in reaction to the reduction of the key rate, while some exporters continued pricing in the weakening of the ruble’s exchange rate, he said.

Real estate developer PIK Group shrank by 0.34% to 561.10 rubles.

Otkritie Research’s analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the dynamics of the Russian market was once again under the impact of the ruble’s exchange rate, which started the day with losses, but then tried to regain some ground, as the supply of foreign currency from the exporting companies remains consistent.

“Besides that, strong sales over the past days made speculators lock in their profits from short ruble positions. The activity of buyers slowed down significantly as compared with the outburst caused by Gazprom’s dividend story,” Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-0.47	294.50	16.239
Sberbank	-1.45	121.22	3.982
Rosneft	+2.50	401.50	2.444
Lukoil	+0.63	4290.00	2.047
Sberbank prefs	-1.91	111.58	1.445

(62.0495 rubles – U.S. $1)

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