Russian stocks fall on ruble, oil, divided cut-offs

MOSCOW, Jul 15 (PRIME) --Russian stocks decreased on Wednesday due to weak oil prices, a falling ruble and dividend cut-offs of blue chips Gazprom and Surgutneftegas, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.35% to 1,641.22 and the RTS decreased 1.12%% to 909.45.

“The MICEX takes its lead from the weakening oil,” Timur Nigmatullin, analyst at Finam, said.

The weak ruble, which fell to above 56.8 against the dollar by the closing bell, technically sped up the fall of the RTS, the analyst also said.

“It should be noted that the current fall of the MICEX and RTS was caused to a great extent by a wide dividend gap in «heavy» securities of Gazprom and Surgutneftegas,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Gas giant Gazprom fell 2.59% to 142.70 rubles, while oil company Surgutneftegas decreased 16.04% to 32.40 per preferred share.

Aluminum giant RUSAL rose 4.29% to 292 rubles, as the company published strong financial results under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) for January–June, the analyst said.

Metals holding Norilsk Nickel rose 0.40% to 9,488 rubles, supported by a company’s buy-back program that has been launched recently, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.14	74.00	5.828
Gazprom	-2.59	142.70	4.132
Surgutneftegas perf	-16.04	32.40	3.351
Lukoil	+1.51	2460.00	2.373
Norilsk Nickel	+0.40	9488.00	1.520

(56.9774 rubles – U.S. $1)

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