Russian stocks slide on negative environ, falling oil price

MOSCOW, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks edged down on Tuesday as market mood was spoiled by a negative external news flow and lower prices for oil, the backbone of the country’s economy, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.55% to 1,855.06 and the RTS decreased 1.07% to 821.64.

“First, the mood of Asian floors switched to bearish from bullish after Japan’s central bank has made no changes in its monetary policy and has not extended its stimuli program. Investors expected the regulator to follow the European Central Bank’s policy…but that did not happen,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

The Brent oil price also fell 2.33% to U.S. $38.63 per barrel as of 5.58 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

One of reasons for the oil price contraction was President Vladimir Putin’s pull out of Russian military from Syria, as it may have been perceived by the market as a signal for improvement of geopolitical situation in the Middle East, Kirsanova added.

In the light of other news, the withdrawal of troops from Syria left mixed feelings. “If any secret advantages for Russia were agreed upon in exchange for the withdrawal of troops from Syria, one could have expected clear political dividends for Russia. But instead, the E.U. has once again reiterated its position not to acknowledge Crimea’s accession to Russia,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Some negative pressure was also exerted on the banking sector by media reports that the E.U. recommended local banks avoid participation in Russia’s Eurobond issue, expected to stand at $3 billion, the first since imposition of western sanctions over Ukraine. “Previously, the U.S. made a similar step. If Europe rejects participation in the placement, Russia may be forced to cancel the offering,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank lost 2.56% to 106.46 rubles after the bank published a report for 2015 under International Financial Reporting Standards. Sberbank’s net profit for the year fell 23.2% 222.9 billion rubles, and net interest income contracted 3.1% to 988 billion rubles, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.56	106.46	13.732
Gazprom	-0.46	142.54	6.723
Lukoil	-0.41	2647.50	4.792
Magnit	+0.93	10880.00	3.034
Norilsk Nickel	+0.57	9202.00	2.695

(70.1542 rubles – U.S. $1)

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