Stocks fall on foreign market pessimism, Rosneft dives

MOSCOW, Feb 18 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market fell on Tuesday as Apple disclosed an estimate of a shortfall in revenue due to problems with spare parts and sales in China and Rosneft plummeted after the U.S. slapped sanctions on its affiliate, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 1.16% to 3,074.05, and the RTS index decreased 1.80% to 1,515.54.

“The market situation is one we have got accustomed to. Relatively calm and positive days give way to a negative mood on yet another piece of news about coronavirus and its fallout,” Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

“Apple warned that it would not meet the revenue guidance this quarter because of problems with components and weak sales in China. This was enough for markets to sink into despair again.”

The analyst said that the U.S.–China trade war escalated again as the U.S. is ready to restrict supplies of equipment to the European producers of semiconductors to ruin Huawei.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Market, said that the oil prices decreased about 1.5% on the back of fears of falling demand.

She said that the European markets were moderately negative after Apple’s warning. The quarterly results of HSBC and its restructuring plans also pressured the European markets, she said, adding that the U.S. stocks futures slid as well.

Rosneft dove after the U.S. introduced sanctions against affiliate Rosneft Trading for sales of Venezuelan oil, analysts said.

Kozhukhova said that Polymetal and Polyus, rising 2.02% and 0.98% respectively were supported by growing gold prices and the growth of demand for safe haven assets.

TGC-1 fell 1.46%, correcting downwards after a strong increase of previous days. Novatek grew ahead of publication of financials under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), on Wednesday, the analyst said.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Tuesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.86	249.2	9.054
Gazprom	-1.39	230.5	7.133
Rosneft	-2.69	452.2	5.619
Lukoil	-1.31	6378.5	4.557
Novatek	+0.22	1094.4	3.296

(63.3085 – U.S. $1)

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