Russian stocks seen mixed on strong crude, global discouragement

MOSCOW, Jun 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged down at the opening thanks to global pessimism on Monday, but the MOEX Russia Index then managed to bounce back to the positive territory, and the market closed mixed.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.28% to 3,813.45 and the RTS decreased 0.26% to 1,642.39.

“The external background does not provide optimism, but the Russian stock market is holding up well. The MOEX Russia Index fell to 3,800 in the morning, but the situation stabilized then. It was partially supported by oil prices that do not participate in the global sales,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

The transportation and petrochemical sectors demonstrated the best performance during the day, and the metals and mining sector managed to stay high thanks to diamond producer ALROSA advancing by 3.46%, he added.

BCS World of Investment expert Dmitry Babin attributed global investor wariness to the possibility of earlier than expected tightening of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy that was signaled following a meeting earlier in June.

Real estate developer LSR Group grew 2.61% thanks to a decision to delist its global depositary receipt (GDRs) from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) because the listing does not meet its strategic priorities.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.19	308.71	10.435
Gazprom	+0.26	270.75	6.829
Norilsk Nickel	+0.83	25208	5.644
Lukoil	+0.11	6660.5	4.397
ALROSA	+3.46	135.94	3.909

(72.2216 rubles – U.S. $1)

End