Russian stocks plunge deep on flight from rising geopolitical risks

MOSCOW, Jan 24 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with a significant decrease on Monday, as market optimism stood no chance against ever-rising geopolitical risks, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 5.93% to 3,235.28 and the RTS decreased 8.11% to 1,288.17.

“The Russian stock market started the week with a fall. The growth of geopolitical risks, which put pressure on our shares, remained the key factor. Sale-offs were also supported by the deteriorating situation on external platforms,” Bogdan Zvarich, analyst at Banki.ru, said.

According to Yegor Zhilnikov of PSB Bank, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) Index renewed its December 2020 lows, falling below 3,200 points. The market was mostly suppressed by rising geopolitical tensions and flight from risks on the global trading platforms.

Profit taking continued in oil futures as well, which exerted additional pressure on the Russian stocks and the ruble, Yelena Kozhukhova of Veles Capital said.

Vladislav Silayev from Alfa Capital and Freedom Finance analysts said that the shares of most of the market’s blue chips, such as VK, Sistema, Aeroflot and Mechel, suffered heavy losses of up to 11.5%, while Fix Price and Acron managed to stay in the green zone.

At the same time, Zhilnikov said that the Russian stocks are heavily underpriced, which the market may make up for later in the week.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-4.89	234.82	68.307
Gazprom	-6.05	292.75	62.709
Lukoil	-3.27	6210	16.533
Norilsk Nickel	-4.65	21072	14.321
Yandex	-8.71	3186	11.853

(76.6903 rubles – U.S. $1)

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