Russian stocks mixed as foreign investors take profit after rally

MOSCOW, Feb 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Monday with the RTS index rising on the back of strengthening of the ruble and the MICEX decreasing as foreign investors withdrew from Russian assets after a rally, analysts said.

The MICEX edged down 0.03% to 2,161.49 and the RTS increased 0.77% to 1,173.17.

“On the Russian market, a desire by some investors to take profit is prominent. The indexed securities where the share of foreigners was the highest, Sberbank, Rosneft and Lukoil, found themselves under pressure,” Alfa-Capital analyst Andrei Shenk said.

Finam analyst Bogdan Zvarich said that the external background for the Russian market was moderately negative as the oil price dropped but consolidated above U.S. $56 per barrel.

The RTS grew because of strengthening of the ruble, he said.

Shenk said that Gazprom was the market outsider on the back of a fall of its weight in the MSCI Russia index. Index-bound funds were forced to reduce their Gazprom stakes because they must follow the index structure.  

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that investor activity in metals producers’ securities somewhat revived on the back of hopes of changes in the MSCI Russia index, and on a remaining bullish trend on the steel market, inspired by information obtained by Reuters that China wants to reduce capacities of steel and aluminum producers in five central regions drastically. 

RUSAL slid 2.71% after investors heard information of a soon sale of a stake in the company belonging to businessman Mikhail Prokhorov on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.48	164.7	8.747
Gazprom	+0.50	141.2	3.667
Lukoil	+1.03	3279	2.115
Norilsk Nickel	-1.81	9890	1.758
Rosneft	+0.37	379	1.684

(58.8457 rubles – U.S. $1)

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