Russia’s RTS falls on ruble, oil, MICEX backed by non-oil stocks

MOSCOW, Jun 4 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday, as the RTS fell undermined by a falling ruble and oil and geopolitical uncertainty caused by tensions in Ukraine, while the MICEX rose shored up by non-oil exporters, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.56% to 1,638.07 and the RTS decreased 2.60% to 922.63.

“The fall of the Russian currency, within which the dollar rose to over 55 rubles, and the euro rose close to 63, left no chances for the RTS to rebound,” InstaForex said in a research note.

The geopolitical uncertainty and tensions in Ukraine put the index under additional pressure, as the West said that further escalation of the Ukrainian conflict may trigger tighter anti-Russian sanctions, analysts said.

The ruble-denominated MICEX index rose was supported by non-oil exporters, including fertilizer makers PhosAgro and Uralkali which added 6.47% and 3.83%, respectively, NLMK steel company which rose 3.01% and RusHydro power producer which firmed 3.52%, Vasily Tanurkov, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

Diamond mining giant ALROSA, whose net profit rose almost fourfold to 22.2 billion rubles in January–March, rose 1.95% to 61.68 rubles.

Severstal fell in profit taking 2.27% to 607.9 rubles due to the cut-off point for receiving dividends, Veles Capital’s analysts said.

On Friday the Russian stock market may be under pressure ahead of an OPEC meeting, as the countries are likely to maintain the oil output quota, Veles Capital’s analysts said in a research note.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.66	71.25	7.846
VTB	0.00	0.08105	4.654
Gazprom	-0.36	140.20	3.970
Lukoil	+1.80	2525.00	3.054
Norilsk Nickel	+0.39	9742.00	2.474

(53.0590 rubles – U.S. $1)

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