Russian stocks mixed as cbank cuts key rate to 11%

MOSCOW, May 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Thursday, after the ruble decreased profoundly on the back of a central bank's decision to cut the key rate to 11%, triggering a fall of the RTS index, while the MOEX Russia index grew on a positive trend on the foreign markets and in the oil prices, analysts said. 

The MOEX Russia Index grew 3.11% to 2,413.06, and the RTS index decreased 5.19% to 1,174.72

"The Russian stock market did not demonstrate a united trend in the middle of the day, affected by the volatility of some companies and the ruble," Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the decision of the central bank to reduce the key rate by 300 basis points was the main Thursday's event. The authority also did not rule out a further key rate decline depending on the situation at the time, including the external factors.

As a result, the ruble started to decrease dramatically, but, according to Kochetkov, the activities of the market participants were speculative rather than giving start to a stable trend. Since central bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina said that she did not consider a strong ruble a threat to the financial stability, the central bank might accept a relatively strong national currency, Kochetkov said.

The oil prices were growing after the U.S. Department of Energy reported a decrease of the commercial reserves of oil by 1 million barrels. Besides, head of the European Council Charles Michel said that an embargo on Russian oil could be achieved in several days with temporary incentives for Hungary. 

Kozhukhova said that the European markets were moderately positive with the Euro Stoxx 50 index adding about 0.6%, and the U.S. markets were also moderately positive, as the S&P 500 index added about 0.5%. 

According to Kochetkov, the state Russian banks decreased on statements in the government about a need of capital injections in the banks, which assumes a lack of dividend payments.

Kozhukhova said that Gazprom slid correcting downwards after a recent growth ahead of the dividend announcement. After an offer of the board of directors to pay record 52.53 rubles per share in dividends for 2021, the shares recovered, analysts said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+9.02	295.89	40.928
Sberbank	-0.93	123	6.438
Lukoil	+2.77	4263	2.061
Rosneft	+3.62	391.7	1.896
Sberbank pref	-1.93	113.75	1.827

(56.2996 rubles – U.S. $1)

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