Russian stocks mixed pressured by global investor wariness

MOSCOW, Nov 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stocks market edged up in the morning on Friday, but reversed later in the day, dragged by a negative environment on Western stock exchanges, to finish the day mixed, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.37% to 2,372.67 and the RTS rose 0.34% to 1,134.93.

“The MOEX Russia Index made uncertain growth attempts at the beginning of the session, but lost its positive sentiment soon and reversed into the red territory… Rising oil prices, including the Brent oil benchmark adding 2%, failed to influence the Russian market. It was hurt by a negative environment on foreign stock exchanges,” Veles Capital analysts said in a research note.

The U.S. markets fell impacted by a steep slide of NVidia shares, and European exchanges were hit by uncertainty about the future of Brexit.

Analyst at Freedom Finance Anastasia Sosnova said that investors’ wariness about the course of trade negotiations between China and the U.S. strengthened after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said that no robust agreement between the states should be expected before January.

Oil company Gazprom Neft outperformed the market adding 0.94% to 377 rubles on a sound International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) financial report for January–September marking a 60% rise in net profit.

National flagship air carrier Aeroflot was among the biggest losers sliding 1.5% to 101.2 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.44	199.26	13.363
Gazprom	-0.64	153.16	3.464
Lukoil	-0.62	4824	3.190
Rosneft	-0.8	420.85	2.185
Norilsk Nickel	+0.11	11714	1.371

(66.6159 rubles – U.S. $1)

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