Russian stocks mixed on Brussels terror attacks, reviving oil

MOSCOW, Mar 22 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Tuesday, because tragic events in Brussels put stocks under pressure, but reviving oil prices provided some support to the ruble and the market, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.05% to 1,903.47 and the RTS increased 0.61% to 889.02.

“The dynamics were caused by a range of factors. At the beginning of the trading day, Russian financial instruments were put under pressure by statements on terrorist attacks in Brussels that decreased interest in risky assets and caused a fall in futures on European and American indices,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club, said.

“But in the second half of the day, the panic calmed down in some way, and oil prices revived, that allowed Russian indices and the ruble to win back lost positions,” Rogova said.

Ducascopy’s analysts said the expectations of OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri that a meeting of oil producing countries on an oil output freeze in Doha on April 17 will be successful supported oil prices.

A rise of the Russian ruble to about 67.4 against the U.S dollar by the closing bell particularly supported the dollar-denominated RTS.

Oil giant Lukoil fell 1.6% to 2,740 rubles after the company published weak financial results under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) for 2015 with its net profit falling 18.7% to 302.294 billion rubles, Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.52	111.49	12.082
Gazprom	-0.19	149.62	5.579
Lukoil	-1.60	2740.00	4.155
ALROSA	-0.30	70.85	2.740
Rosneft	+1.61	318.05	2.437

(68.8086 rubles – U.S. $1)

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