Stocks fall on Western sanction policy, Russian ratings decrease

MOSCOW, JAN 19 (PRIME) -- Domestic stocks decreased on Monday on E.U. foreign ministers’ decision to keep anti-Russian sanctions and reduced forecast for the country’s 2015 GDP by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in light of Moody’s downgrade of three national financial institutions, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.94%% to 1,576.40 and the RTS decreased 0.42% to 766.57.

“The main factor was the agreement of E.U. countries to keep the current sanction policy towards Russia. Such a statement was made during a meeting of the European Council on Foreign Relations,” Veles Capital said in a statement.

“Market players’ mood was also a bit depressed by the decreased forecast for Russia’s GDP for the current year by the EBRD,” Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex analytical department, said.

The current escalation of the Ukrainian conflict put the market under additional pressure, the analyst said.

The volatility rose in the banking sector as the Economic Development Ministry indefinitely delayed the introduction of a short-term liquidity ratio under Basel III standards within an anti-crisis plan for the country’s banks, Sofiya Kirsanova, analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-1.00	148.11	8.078
Sberbank	-0.31	61.80	7.849
Lukoil	-3.51	2640.00	4.643
Rosneft	-0.31	225.30	2.117
Norilsk Nickel	-1.51	9417.00	1.921

(65.1738 rubles – U.S. $1)

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