Russian stocks plunge as Western bourses, oil price fall

MOSCOW, Mar 6 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks took a pummeling on Friday as the oil prices slumped to their three-year lows and the Western bourses contracted due to further expansion of the coronavirus, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 3.45% to 2,719.51 and the RTS decreased 4.97% to 1,257.96.

“The Russian market today found itself between a rock and a hard place, or between worsening of conditions on the external bourses and contraction of oil prices,” Yaroslav Kabakov, director for strategy at investment company Finam, said.

The Brent oil price plummeted by 6.362% to U.S. $47.00 per barrel at of 5.53 p.m. Moscow time, the lowest since July 2017.

Kabakov explained the fall by the unwillingness of the OPEC+ deal members to reduce their output by a recommended amount of 1.5 million barrels a day, if Russia does not join.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the Russian stock slumped due to the pessimistic mood of the international bourses.

“The mood at the stock bourses of Europe was negative…The coronavirus continues its expansion in the region. The number of infection cases is growing in France and Germany,” Kozhukhova said.

“Self-destruction of the markets continues. Uncertainty about the consequences of the coronavirus means that global capital flees from risks. But the situation starts looking more and more like a crisis of a financial character. The national market reacts to the weakness of oil prices and to probable contraction in demand for other Russian exports,” Otkritie Broker’s senior analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Shares of precious metals producers Polyus and Polymetal International gained 2.98% to 8,885 rubles and 2.91% to 1,149.60 rubles as the gold prices are growing, Kochetkov said.

Kabakov said that the depositary receipts of TCS Group lost 24.66% to 1,116.60 rubles in the wake of arrest of the company’s core owner Oleg Tinkov on accusations of filing false tax reports in the U.S. and the businessman’s announcement that he has leukemia.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-4.91	188.27	24.903
Sberbank	-5.31	219.99	23.122
Norilsk Nickel	+4.73	21762.00	16.862
Lukoil	-4.61	5592.00	12.752
Rosneft	-4.30	392.95	5.071

(66.1854 rubles – U.S. $1)

End