Russian stocks fall on weak oil, ahead of UK referendum

MOSCOW, Jun 22 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell in thin trade on Wednesday along with the oil prices, and in anticipation of a U.K. referendum to decide whether it should leave or remain in the E.U., analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.38% to 1,896.7 and the RTS decreased 1.06% to 927.29.

“Oil has tested a U.S. $51 per barrel level but failed to consolidate there. By the end of the working day, the price fell to almost $50 after statistics of the U.S. oil reserves were released. Reserves fell significantly less than expected by the American Petroleum Institute (API),” Veles Capital senior analyst Yury Kravchenko said.

Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex research department, said, “Sales on global markets, including in Russia, fell in the afternoon.” Investor attention on world’s trading floors was still focused on the British referendum to be held on Thursday, the expert said.

The fall of the dollar-denominated RTS was technically sped up by a ruble weakening to about 64.4 against the U.S. dollar by the end of the trading session.

Fertilizer maker Uralkali, whose revenue fell 28% on the year to $521 million in January–March, went down 3.17% to 183.55 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.06	134.81	6.122
Gazprom	-0.38	143.00	2.782
Lukoil	+0.08	2660.00	1.457
Magnit	-2.54	8488.00	1.313
Norilsk Nickel	-0.76	8349.00	1.312

(64.1743 rubles – U.S. $1)

End