Russia’s RTS fall on weaker ruble, oil, MICEX rises in narrow band

MOSCOW, Jun 19 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Friday, as the RTS fell following a weakening ruble and oil, while the MICEX edged up after trading in a narrow band, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.17% to 1,663.03 and the RTS decreased 1.52% to 966.90.

“Today’s weakening of the ruble against the dollar caused a sharp slump of the RTS index. At the same time, the MICEX continues consolidation in a quite narrow band for a third consecutive day,” Vitaly Manzhos, chief analyst at bank Obrazovanie, said.

The ruble fell to below 54.15 against the U.S. dollar on the back of weak oil prices.

The dollar-denominated RTS also decreased after the Chinese stock market fell on fears that requirements to brokers may be tightened and RTS’ retail investors from China closed positions, Maxim Krylov, director of the Golden Hills-Kapital research department, said.

“There are no significant drivers still, and the main driving force now is closing positions in anticipation of the weekend,” Igor Kovalyov, analyst at InstaForex, said.

Russia’s Inter RAO rose 1.24% to 1.18 rubles after the Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed E4 Group’s claim against its unit Inter RAO – Electric Power Plants and Alfa-Bank.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.95	71.56	6.701
Gazprom	0	147.15	3.886
VTB	+0.15	0.08002	2.133
Lukoil	-0.06	2474.40	1.781
Surgutneftegas pref	+3.00	42.12	1.757

(53.3301 rubles – U.S. $1)

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