Russian stocks flat, consolidate on last trading session of quarter

MOSCOW, Sep 29 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with marginal changes on Friday as investors worldwide were avoiding bold steps on the last day of September and the July–September quarter, analysts said.

The MICEX grew 0.27% to 2,077.19 and the RTS increased 0.99% to 1,136.75.

“The last trading day of the month and quarter was absolutely neutral on all markets,” Finam analyst Vasily Oleinik said. “From the technical point of view, the MICEX index situation has not been changed over the last several days and remains neutral.”

He said that a U.S. tax reform plan presented by the Republicans is sparking an increasing level of criticism but the issue will be properly noticed by market bears later, as the new quarter starts.

A referendum on independence in Catalonia is slated for Sunday, and can cause market turmoil at the start of October, Oleinik said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that metals sector increased as Russian producers can benefit from China’s output fall in winter.

Strengthening of the ruble affected the shares of exporters negatively, he said.

Kochetkov said that Aeroflot remained under pressure as it undertook to pay to drive the passengers of troubled VIM-Avia home.

Sistema’s shares fell 0.93% as Rosneft sent an appeal against a decision by the Arbitration Court of the republic of Bashkortostan to cut the sum which Sistema has to pay to it to 136.3 billion rubles from 170.6 billion rules and is demanding the full amount to be paid, analysts said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.19%	192.33	5.061
Norilsk Nickel	+2.82%	9920	3.904
Gazprom	-0.24%	122.2	2.106
RussNeft	-0.87%	569	1.503
RusHydro	+0.16%	0.8514	1.428

(58.4255 rubles – U.S. $1)

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