Russian stocks fall on worsened external background

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with a decrease on Friday due to a worsened external background, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell by 2.99% to 3,546.62 and the RTS decreased 4.96% to 1,470.10.

“The MOEX Russia Index and RTS indices by the end of the main trades remained in the negative territory …, which can be explained mainly by the continuing geopolitical tension,” Yelena Kozhukhova of Veles Capital said.

The uncertainty in the global arena remained a major deterrent to growth in the Russian market, Kozhukhova said.

According to Dmitry Babin of BCS Investment Group, yesterday’s Ukraine talks failed to bear any results, which was a major signal for an already frightened Russian market, and the central bank’s tightening monetary policy suppressed the market even further.

As Alexei Golovinov, chief analyst at PSB Bank, said, even positive oil futures dynamics did not help the trading session close in the green zone today. All of the market’s sectors traded in the negative.

The shares of Polymetal, PhosAgro, RusAgro and PIK lead the charts today, while that of Mechel and TCS Group faced a correction trend after the recent spike in price, Kozhukhova said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.26	266.24	43.844
Gazprom	-1.74	323.22	24.447
Lukoil	-2.21	6830	9.495
Yandex	-3.71	3664	8.047
TCS Group	-7.04	5435	6.976

(74.7241 rubles – U.S. $1)

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