Russian stocks fall on unfavorable external background

MOSCOW, Oct 10 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks contracted on Wednesday hurt by an unfavorable external background, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.07% to 2,417.69 and the RTS lost 1.39% to 1,143.35.

“Major pressure on the Russian market came from external factors, in particular from the situation at global trade floors, where bears have dominated of late. Worries about growing U.S. Treasuries’ yields make investors reduce risks in their portfolio in favor of high quality assets,” Anastasia Popova, analyst at BCS Broker.

Veles Capital said in a research note that dynamics of the Russian stock market was under the influence of falling oil prices and pessimism on the world trade floors. “The European indices finished the day in the red zone, and the U.S. indices opened with a contraction,” the company said.

The Brent oil price plummeted 1.65% to U.S. $83.62 per barrel as of 6.07 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Yevgenia Abramovich, head of the currency risks analysis department at Swiss brokerage house Dukascopy Bank S.A, said that shares of gas giant Gazprom, which fell 3.43%, were one of the major securities that weighed upon the whole market.

Grigory Vashchenko, head of the department for operations at the Russian stock market in investment company Freedom Finance, said that shares of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft outperformed the market and grew 1.42% on the news about the company’s buyback and negotiations of a purchase of a stake in Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) from multi-industry holding Summa Group.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.71	189.89	12.902
Gazprom	-3.43	166.20	6.875
Magnit	-2.57	3490.00	2.798
Rosneft	-0.92	468.75	2.271
Norilsk Nickel	-0.24	11376.00	2.107

(66.4032 rubles – U.S. $1)

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