Russian stocks fall over external negativity, profit taking

MOSCOW, Dec 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed the trading session with a decline on Friday over the weak global background and profit taking on some securities, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.31% to 2,180.44 and the RTS decreased 1.43% to 1,107.55.

“By the end of the main session on Friday the Russian stock market was in the correctional decline, following the deterioration of global sentiment and profit taking on some securities,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Freedom Finance Global’s Senior Analyst Natalya Milchakova said that the U.S.’ rather optimistic labor market statistics for November led to the dollar strengthening and caused a correction on the U.S. stock exchanges, as well as negative dynamics on the Russian stock market.

The biggest growth was shown by ordinary and preferred shares of Surgutneftegas, which went up without any obvious reasons, and Beluga securities, which grew as the shareholders expect its board of directors to recommend the interim dividend for 2022 on Monday, Kozhukhova said.

According to Milchakova, Shares of RUSAL topped the list of outsiders due to uncertainty over the lifting of COVID restrictions in China, which is the main consumer of aluminum supplied by the company and Magnit shares continued to move down due to investors' doubts regarding dividend payments.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Polyus	-0.56	7483	4.242
Gazprom	-0.54	166.08	3.214
Sberbank	-0.47	136.5	2.288
Magnit	-1.81	4690.5	1.609
Surgutneftegas	+4.71	22.81	1.541

(61.1479 rubles – U.S. $1)

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