Russian stocks fall on unfavorable background, falling oil price

MOSCOW, Nov 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted on Wednesday as falling foreign bourses and oil price depressed the quotes, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.84% to 2,166.56 and the RTS decreased 2.55% to 1,113.93.

“The Russian stock market corrected downward today as the situation on the external trading floors worsened and the oil prices fell. The futures for the S&P index decreased by 0.5%, and the Brent oil price lost 0.6%,” Vladimir Lyashschuk, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said.

The Russian shares are still attractive from the point of view of dividends, and the market may see this correction as an opportunity for purchases. At the same time, worsening of the situation on the external exchanges restrain growth of the Russian market, Lyashchuk said.

“It is worth noting that the mood of the foreign trade floors was not optimistic today. Expectations of softening of the zero tolerance policy to the COVID-19 and for recovery of activity in China do not come true. The morning data on consumer and producer’ prices in China show a slowdown of internal demand, and this is a negative factor for commodities,” Finam analyst Alexei Kalachyov said.

The shares of Russian steelmakers were among the losers after business daily Kommersant published a research of BCS Global Markets that steel exports are unprofitable for the Russian companies because of the high prices for metal products, expensive logistics, and a strong ruble. Kalachyov said. Severstal lost 3.96%, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) shrank by 4.40%, and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) went down by 3.34%.

But the shares of gold producers Seligdar, Polymetal, and Lenzoloto gained 2.91%, 3.41%, and 4.53%, respectively, as the price for gold climbed above U.S. $1,700 per ounce once again, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.29	128.29	6.289
Polyus	-0.13	6500.00	3.243
Gazprom	-1.10	168.10	2.516
Detsky Mir	-1.86	49.50	1.689
Lukoil	-1.11	4645.50	1.499

(60.9774 rubles – U.S. $1)

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