Russian stocks fall on worsened background, sanctions rhetoric

MOSCOW, Feb 27 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks decreased on Wednesday amid a deterioration of the foreign background and resumption of sanctions rhetoric, ignoring a hike in oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.14% to 2,490.65 and the RTS decreased 0.17% to 1,191.01.

The Russian stock indices opened in the green zone on Wednesday, but moved to an active decline quite quickly. Initially, this movement was promoted by some deterioration of the foreign background, but then the situation on global markets began to gradually improve, but the Russian indices progressively moved down to the middle of the session, BCS Broker expert Dmitry Babin said.

“Probably, participants of our market were worried about the appearance of the text of the sanctions bill proposed two weeks ago by the U.S. lawmakers. Despite the fact that there are no unexpected negative moments in it, this event reminded investors of the threat of new anti-Russian sanctions that could cause significant damage to the economy and the financial sector,” he said.

Freedom Finance analyst Anastasia Sosnova said “the publication of the U.S. bill on anti-Russian sanctions did not put pressure on the market, as the bill has already been taken into account in the stock quotes.”

Mixed dynamics were seen on global stock floors due to uncertainty over the China–U.S. trade truce, she said. Asian indices closed mainly in plus, while European indices fell 0.2–0.6%, and the U.S. indices opened with a decline of 0.2%.

Russian hydropower giant RusHydro fell 0.85% after saying that it expects its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to rise 3.8% to around 108 billion rubles in 2018, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), while revenue is projected to increase 5.1% to 400.5 billion rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.19	205.40	11.103
Gazprom	+0.67	156.40	3.076
Lukoil	+0.52	5580.00	2.629
Norilsk Nickel	-0.82	14302.00	1.820
Rosneft	+0.35	400.40	1.415

(65.6182 rubles – U.S. $1)

End