Russian stocks shed on oil price dive, US sanctions threats

MOSCOW, May 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market decreased on Friday after an almost 5% oil price drop on Thursday in the afternoon and information that the U.S. can consider new anti-Moscow steps, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.67% to 1,934.25, and the RTS decreased 0.97% to 1,073.04.

“The negative, in fact, formed already yesterday when the Brent oil dropped to U.S. $51 per barrel, and the ruble weakened after that. But this provided no significant support to exporters,” Otkritie Broker analyst Alexander Kochetkov said.

InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said reports that the U.S. can consider new sanctions against Moscow later in 2017 were an additional factor pressurizing the market.

Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said that the external background for the Russian market was negative, as Europe’s Stoxx 600 index decreased, the U.S. S&P 500 futures fell, and besides, the alleged Trump–Russia connections scandal continued in the U.S.

Kovalyov said that Rosseti was the market outsider on Friday, losing 4.62% after Deputy Economic Development Minister Nikolai Podguzov said that the company can pay 3 billion rubles, or 50% of the adjusted net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), in dividends for 2016. “Taking into account the interim dividends for the first quarter of the last year, the dividend yield turns out to be extremely low.”

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Friday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.04	160.7	7.434
Gazprom	+0.49	122.2	2.751
Rosneft	-0.78	304	2.222
Transneft	-6.02	160100	2.008
Surgutneftegas	+1.18	29.705	1.757

(56.0701 rubles – U.S. $1)

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