Russian stocks plummet on fears of deeper geopolitical crisis

MOSCOW, Feb 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market shrunk on Monday pressured by investors’ flight from risk amid vivid omens of deeper geopolitical escalation, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell by 10.50% to 3,036.88 and the RTS slumped by 13.21% to 1,207.50.

According to Yelena Kozhukhova of Veles Capital, the situation on world stock exchanges was relatively calm at the beginning of the new week, which could not be said about Russian assets, as all of the most liquid stocks were down by the end of trading.

“The domestic stock market experienced the strongest daily drop since March 2020,” Yegor Zhilnikov, chief analyst at PSB Bank, said.

“Large-scale sell-offs were provoked by the deterioration of the external background and escalation of tensions in the geopolitical issue,” Vladislav Silayev of Alfa Capital said.

“Growing geopolitical risks, which put significant pressure on our market, were the main factor for Russian shares again. The decline of the European platforms, where the leading indices lost up to 2.2% in the course of today’s trading, was the additional factor that supported the sales,” Bogdan Zvarich of Banki.ru said.

The shares of VK, Mechel, Rosneft and Sberbank led the decrease trend, falling from 18 to 22% at the end of the session, Silayev said.

The shares of chemical companies Acron and PhosAgro outperformed the market average but still went deep into the red zone today, Zhilnikov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-16.89	208	179.331
Gazprom	-10.12	278.15	87.599
Yandex	-10.5	3,110.6	26.538
Lukoil	-6.92	6,010	23.107
Rosneft	-18.33	424.25	20.611

(75.7619 rubles – U.S. $1)

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