Russian stocks fall on weak ruble, nervous investors

MOSCOW, Sep 29 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks contracted on Tuesday due to a weakening ruble and investor nervousness ahead of upcoming U.S. presidential polls and releases of macroeconomic statistics in China, Europe, and the U.S., analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.58% to 2,910.12 and the RTS decreased 0.96% to 1,155.67.

“The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index fell on the absence of noticeable internal or external positive drivers. … The foreign market mood switched to negative from neutral on Tuesday. Investors are nervous as the U.S. presidential campaign is gaining momentum and due to releases of macroeconomic statistics in China, Europe, and the U.S. that are due on Wednesday,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Many risky assets are still under short-term pressure, meaning the market will most likely react strongly to any negative signals, she said.

“The MOEX Russia Index grew to 2,947.70 in the first half of the day, but it switched to contraction on the unclear external background. Nevertheless, we can say that the U-turn in the ruble made some speculators to revise the strategy of purchases of ruble shares in expectation of weakness of the Russian currency,” Otkritie Broker’s senior analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

Alexander Osin, head of the department for trade operations on the Russian stock market at Freedom Finance, said that Far-Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) was among the gain leaders rising 6.20% to 9.25rubles on the news that it had a 5.3 billion ruble net profit in January–June against a 1.2 billion ruble net loss in the same period of 2019.

Oil major Lukoil underperformed the market to lose 2.74% to 4,500 rubles following amendments to the added income tax that the parliament’s lower chamber approved in a second reading. The amendments allow oil companies Tatneft and Gazprom Neft to get up to 36 billion rubles of tax deductions on the mineral extraction tax in the next three years, while Lukoil received no such compensations.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.63	224.90	19.597
Gazprom	-1.22	170.63	8.052
Lukoil	-2.74	4500.00	6.922
Yandex	+0.26	5093.40	6.910
Norilsk Nickel	-0.46	18740.00	3.093

(78.6713 rubles – U.S. $1)

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