Russian stocks fall on tough geopolitical environ, oil price slide

MOSCOW, Jul 20 (PRIME) – The stocks fell on Friday as investors favored sales due to a tough international situation, including new developments in the U.S. trade war with China and concerns over possible new sanctions against Russia, and local players received no support from sliding oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.95% to 2,247.82 and the RTS decreased 0.88% to 1,114.59.

“The situation at financial markets is dire. Today, news came from CNBC that (U.S. President Donald) Trump said he was ready to slap trade duties on U.S. $500 billion worth of goods from China…The U.S. is ready to impose 10% duties on $75 billion worth Chinese goods from September 1, and the list will only expand after that,” Vasily Oleinik, an expert at investment company Finam, said.

“Before the news the European stock indices had grown 0.5%, and after that they plummeted about 1%...and the oil price also lost 1% due to that.”

The Brent oil price slid to $72.34 per barrel during the day, but it grew 0.901% to U.S. $73.24 in a rebound as of 6.21 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“The MOEX Russia Index has continued its contraction for a fifth trade session in a row today expecting possible worsening of sanctions. The external markets also provided no significant favorable drivers. The U.S. trade wars against Europe and China are gaining momentum, while the oil prices remain close to a level after a slump at the beginning of the week,” Artyom Mikhailin, an analyst at investment company Veles Capital, said.

Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the international situation was the main reason for sales in Russian shares. “The risk of the U.S. introducing new sanctions against Russia is very high, as the Senate is already working on a new package of restrictive measures,” he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.52	204.34	26.070
Gazprom	-0.81	136.47	2.565
Lukoil	-0.78	4300.00	2.518
Sberbank prefs	-1.78	174.10	2.096
Norilsk Nickel	-0.92	10255.00	1.836

(63.2746 rubles – U.S. $1)

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