Russian stocks neutral on foreign markets fall, oil price rise

MOSCOW, Jul 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed neutrally on Tuesday as growing oil prices balanced the negative mood from falling foreign indices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index closed flat at 2,822.66, and the RTS Index fell 0.34% to 1,394.86.

“In general, the markets were influenced by Friday’s U.S. labor market statistics and fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) will postpone reduction of the basic rate corridor at a meeting at the end of July,” Konstantin Bushuyev, head of the market analysis department at Otkritie Broker, said.

“After opening with a downward gap, the Russian stock market indicators attempted to rise, favored by a dramatic resurge of oil prices. But after that, the market started to edge down following the global trade floors,” BCS Broker expert Dmitry Babin said. “The bulk of risky assets fell due to deterioration of the geopolitical situation caused by the U.S. approval of a sale of U.S. $2.2 billion worth of arms to Taiwan.”

Yaroslav Kabakov, director for strategy at investment company Finam, said that the key foreign markets fell for a second day in a row on the back of market reassessment of Fed’s policy. “Market participants have started to doubt that the Fed will adopt aggressive measures to reduce interest rates in July,” he said.

Mounting trade disagreements between Japan and South Korea added to the negative sentiment on foreign markets, he said.

Kabakov said that Brent rose to $64.6 per barrel as reduction of supply by OPEC and tensions on the Middle East outweighed the risks of a global slowdown.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+0.67	250.17	8.143
Sberbank	-0.23	242.74	6.404
Lukoil	+0.31	5374	2.536
VTB	+1.36	0.04313	2.379
ALROSA	-1.26	86	1.737

(63.8699 rubles – U.S. $1)

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