Russian stocks mixed as cbank keeps key rate at 8%, ruble weakens

MOSCOW, Sep 12 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Friday as the MICEX resumed growth after Thursday’s falling because investors were pleasantly surprised by the central bank’s decision to keep the key rate at the earlier level of 8%, and the RTS continued falling on the ruble exchange rate weakening, analysts said.

The MICEX went up 0.61% to 1,458.52, and the RTS fell 0.38% to 1.213.27.

“In the middle of the trading session, investors knew about the central bank’s decision to abstain from raising the key rate, which contributed to the optimism of Russian assets’ buyers,” Ivan Fomenko, head of Absolut Bank’s trust management department, said.

“The RTS lost mainly due to weakening of the ruble,” Alfa-Capital analyst Andrei Shenk said.

“It seems that investors decided to benefit from the declining Russian securities’ prices to raise long positions,” Fomenko said.

On Friday, the central bank has kept the weekly repo rate, which is its key rate, at 8% in spite of inflation growth in late August and early September on increasing geopolitical tensions and weakening exchange rate of the ruble. This decision was a surprise for many investors, VTB24 analyst Stanislav Kleshchev said.

The E.U. has extended sanctions against Russia, barring oil companies Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and three major Russian defense companies from long-term borrowing within Europe. Sanctions were announced on Thursday, and by Friday the reaction to their introduction has already faded away, Nord-Capital senior analyst Roman Tkachuk said.

ALROSA fell 4.65% to 36.799 rubles on rumors that the Finance Ministry, the Federal State Property Management Service and the Audit Chamber will start checks on whether there were any legislation violations while the company was performing large deals in the past, including its initial public offering in 2013. ALROSA’s CEO Fyodor Andreyev is under suspicion of frauds, Tkachuk said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.46	76.65	11.142
Gazprom	+0.67	137.56	4.809
Lukoil	+0.65	2163.1	2.499
Sberbank pref	-0.80	59.20	1.553
Norilsk Nickel	+0.90	7400	1.289

(37.3758 rubles – U.S. $1)

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