Russian stocks plunge further on sanction risks

MOSCOW, Jan 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market continued its descend on Friday, as high risks of sanctions against Russia warded off investors, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index dropped 2.12% to 3,596.98 and the RTS fell 2.05% to 1,485.86.

“The Moscow Exchange and the RTS indices remained in the red zone as of the end of the main trading sessions, feeling the pressure from the continuing geopolitical tension and the threat of new sanctions,” Yelena Kozhukhova of Veles Capital said.

According to Artyom Tuzov, chief analyst at Univer Capital, Russia’s unyielding stance on the illegitimacy of Western sanctions resulted in panic sales on the Russian market.

Moderate sale-offs prevailed on global stock exchanges as well, but optimism dominated the oil market as the Brent and WTI oil blends were rising by around 1% on anticipation of higher demand in the near future, Kozhukhova said.

The MOEX Index probed the April low mark of 3500 points, but a surge of purchases pulled the index up closer to the level of 3600, Bogdan Zvarich of Banki.ru said.

Most of the Russian market’s blue chips traded in the negative, and the shares of TCS Group, Sberbank and Yandex showed the deepest drops with losses of 8.0%, 7.34% and 5.04%, respectively, Freedom Finance analysts said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-5.5	257.5	93.195
Gazprom	-0.88	334.62	35.235
Lukoil	+0.05	6668	11.857
Norilsk Nickel	-0.52	22718	11.375
Yandex	-3.5	4022.2	10.701

(74.5686 rubles – U.S. $1)

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