Russian stocks mixed on mixed foreign markets trends

MOSCOW, Aug 18 (PRIME) -- The MOEX Russia Index fell on Tuesday and the RTS Index rose a little on the back of mixed trends on the European and U.S. trading floors and a strong ruble, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.06% to 3,050.70, and the RTS index grew 0.21% to 1,311.52.

"The domestic market tried to trade in the green zone but the strengthening ruble kept it from strong trends," Andrei Kochetkov, lead analyst at Otkritie Broker for global research, said.

The European indices grew significantly, Kochetkov said. Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the U.S. trading session started with growth of the three key indices, but the trend changed to mixed at the end of the Russian trading session. The S&P 500 started to correct downwards.

She said that the Russian indices fell from the day highs in the evening due to the deteriorating mood abroad.

Kochetkov said that the external background remained unfavorable as the U.S. prohibited exports of microchips to China's Huawei making investors fear further deterioration of relations between the countries.

Oil eased after the technical committee of OPEC plus estimated the OPEC plus deal completion in July at 95–97% but the comment emphasized the risks to demand in case of a second wave of the pandemic, Kochetkov said. A meeting at the ministerial level is scheduled for Wednesday.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.84	235.8	8.490
Yandex	-0.43	4480.6	8.316
Polyus	-1.17	17940	5.623
Gazprom	-0.03	190.41	5.148
Norilsk Nickel	+0.51	20816	4.354

 (72.9676 – U.S. $1)

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