Russian stocks mixed on low oil, ruble, Fed meeting uncertainty

MOSCOW, Oct 27 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Tuesday amid low oil prices, uncertainty caused by a started 2-day meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) and the ruble depreciation which depressed the RTS and quite supported non-oil exporters’ shares, which comprise the MICEX, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.80% to 1,725.89 and the RTS decreased 2.19% to 839.26.

“The external conditions for the Russian market were unfavorable today. Oil fell to below an important support level of U.S $47 per barrel on expectations that the U.S. oil reserves will rise (data will be published late on Wednesday). News that the U.S. plans to sell 8% of strategic oil reserves in 2018–2025…were an additional factor, which depressed oil,” Vasily Tanurkov, deputy head of Veles Capital’s department for stock market research, said.

The uncertainty concerning a started 2-day meeting of the Fed was another negative factor for the market, Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

The fall of the dollar-denominated RTS was technically sped up by the ruble depreciation to 64.8 against the U.S. dollar by the closing bell.

At the same time, the MICEX rose on the national currency weakening, Tanurkov said.

The rise was secured by shares of non-oil exporters, such as steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), which rose 3.48% to 73.68 rubles, coking coal producer Raspadskaya, which grew 3.09% to 38.06 rubles, titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma, which added 2.22% to 11,500 rubles, and fertilizer producer PhosAgro, which increased 2.07% to 2,659 rubles, he said.

Internet giant Yandex rose 12.17% to 940 rubles after publishing strong financial results for July–September, Tanurkov said.

National top lender Sberbank traditionally fell on the back of the ruble weakening, he said. Grocery retailer Magnit rebounded after a 6.01% fall on Monday.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.58	89.00	12.405
Gazprom	0.00	138.50	4.922
Lukoil	+2.29	2350.60	3.724
Magnit	+5.09	11359.00	2.963
Norilsk Nickel	+0.10	9710.00	1.878

(62.5038 rubles – U.S. $1)

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