Russian stocks go down on falling oil prices, external negativity

MOSCOW, Apr 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Wednesday over falling oil prices and unfavourable global background, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.25% to 2,620.33 and the RTS decreased 0.28% to 1,011.06.

“The decline in the Russian markets was due to a sell-off in the oil market, as well as the decline in foreign markets on the background of the approaching the U.S. Federal Reserve System meeting and ambiguous reports of major U.S. corporations,” head of the alternative investment department of managing company Pervaya Yevgeny Linchik said.

According to Freedom Finance Global leading analyst Natalya Milchakova, the decline in the Brent oil price, its quotations collapsed to below $80 per barrel, created a negative background for the oil and gas sector.

Investors were also disturbed by the presidential decree on the introduction of temporary external management by the Federal State Property Management Agency in Russian companies belonging to shareholders from unfriendly countries, the analyst added.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the market was in a subdued decline consolidating near local peaks before the continuation of the internal season of quarterly reports.

The shares of TGC-1, which is a Russian asset of the Finnish Fortum, reacted positively to the news about their transfer to the temporary external management of the Federal State Property Management Agency, the analyst said. Similar actions, which will be taken with regard to Uniper assets, failed to support Unipro shares, she added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
VTB Bank	+4.73	0.0207	5.594
Sberbank	+0.01	235.33	4.633
Unipro	-3.69	2.06	3.027
Gazprom	-0.22	178.53	2.548
Lukoil	-0.19	4680	2.54

(81.5499 rubles – U.S. $1)

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