Russian stocks mixed after Gazprom’s AGM amid ruble weakening

MOSCOW, Jun 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday amid the ruble’s weakening against the U.S. dollar and the absence of growth drivers, including no significant support to shares from news regarding an annual general meeting (AGM) of gas giant Gazprom’s shareholders, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.16% to 1,891.09 and the RTS decreased 0.06% to 930.77.

“We can say that the market calmed down. A meeting of Gazprom’s shareholders did not support shares significantly,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Gazprom has kept its plans to raise dividend payments in the future, Deputy CEO Andrei Kruglov said during the meeting, but these promises failed to become a strong growth driver because “one can recall that largest companies earlier managed to agree with authorities to decrease dividend payouts,” according to Kochetkov.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that the dollar-denominated RTS was depressed by a ruble weakening against the U.S. dollar.

Electronic goods and household appliances retailer M.Video fell 7.68% to 301.7 rubles after dividend cut, Manzhos said.

Grocery retailer Magnit jumped 3.59% to 9,012 rubles after investment bank Credit Suisse increased the target price of Magnit’s Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) by 5% to U.S. $63 with an 18% growth potential and upgraded the recommendation to Buy from Hold.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.66	133.00	11.562
Gazprom	-0.35	139.51	3.461
Magnit	+3.59	9012.00	1.982
Lukoil	+0.60	2684.00	1.548
Rosneft	-0.45	330.00	1.315

(64.2575 rubles – U.S. $1)

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