Russian stocks flat on oil price decrease, ruble fluctuations

MOSCOW, Oct 3 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with marginal changes on Tuesday pulled down by oil stocks in the wake of a fall of oil prices, but supported by the ruble recovery, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew by 0.37% to 3,143.88, and the RTS index rose by 0.16% to 993.74.

"The Russian stock market regained some ground after daily lows by the middle of the session but remained under the pressure from deterioration of the global mood and sales in some shares," Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said, adding that the partial recovery was thanks to the ruble that recovered from its fall below 100 per U.S. dollar in the morning.

Sales predominated on the foreign stock markets with the Euro Stoxx 50 losing 0.7% to its March lows, the U.S. S&P 500 futures decreased by 0.4% in the middle of the Russian session, Kozhukhova said.

According to Finam analyst Ksenia Lapshina, a downward correction in the oil prices to U.S. $90 per barrel of Brent from $95 pressured the entire Russian oil and gas sector.

However, the common shares of Surgutneftegas continued the rise that began during the previous sessions on expectations of high dividends, Kozhukhova said.

The depositary receipts of developer Etalon grew 4.14% supported by the news of a split of the depositary program. BNY Mellon is to pass some global depositary receipts of the company to a different depository bank, Kozhukhova said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Lukoil	+0.61	6761	5.516
Sberbank	+0.35	259.89	5.478
Surgutneftegas	+2.82	33.51	4.330
Surgutneftegas pref	-0.25	56.795	4.064
Gazprom	+0.54	166.97	2.611

(98.4785 rubles – U.S. $1)

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