Russian stocks fall on unfavorable dynamics of US, EU bourses

MOSCOW, Aug 18 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market contracted on Wednesday in line with the U.S. and European bourses, as the U.S. investors were displeased with signals regarding monetary policy that had come from U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) and the trade in Europe was spoiled by data on inflation in the U.K., analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.45% to 3,925.17 and the RTS decreased 0.86% to 1,675.21.

“The MOEX Russia Index fell today following dynamics of the U.S. indices and in spite of a slight increase of oil prices, which remained close to the weekly highs,” Alexander Osin, head of Freedom Finance’s department for trade operations on the Russian stock market, said.

“U.S. Federal Reserve System’s Chairman Jerome Powell noted risks for recovery of the economy during an online conference with the U.S. professors, but he did not say anything about any specific measures that the regulator may take to counter the risks. Investors reacted to the news with sales,” Osin said.

Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said that the MOEX Russia Index renewed its historic intra-day record by reaching 3,949.07 in the first half of the day, but it started falling as it followed dynamics of the European bourses.

“European indices were mainly in the red zone. … The U.K. said that inflation slowed down to 2.0% in July, while expectations saw it shrinking to 2.3% from 2.5% in June. British inflation signals that high prices are only a temporary factor,” Kochetkov said.

Shares of electronic goods and household appliances retailer M.Video-Eldorado grew by 1.80% to 652 rubles as investors were pleased with the company’s financial report. The adjusted net profit grew by 18% on the year to 6.4 billion rubles in January–June, while revenue gained 22.3% to 212.8 billion rubles mainly due to a 48.8% increase in online sales, he said.

Osin also said that national flagship carrier Aeroflot gained 2.48% to 68.66 rubles in reaction to the report that the company would start scheduled flights from Moscow to Mexico and from Russia’s regions to CIS countries. Weak margins in segments where revenue has already recovered exerts pressure on profits of Aeroflot, therefore the company has to develop profitable destinations in order to improve results, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.02	337.92	11.017
Gazprom	+0.19	298.88	9.273
Lukoil	-0.67	6523.50	4.420
Rosneft	+0.26	556.45	4.400
Norilsk Nickel	-1.26	24262.00	3.636

(73.4753 rubles – U.S. $1)

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