Stocks mixed on ruble easing, merger talks between Norilsk, RUSAL

MOSCOW, Jul 5 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed s on Tuesday, as the MOEX Russia Index increased on the back of the weakening ruble, while the dollar-denominated RTS index declined with RUSAL and En+ Group rising on the news about merger negotiations with Norilsk Nickel, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew by 1% to 2,226.64 and the RTS slumped by 8.19% to 1,146.68.

"The Russian shares rose confidently in the middle of the day on Tuesday, July 5. The ruble index added about 1.5%, while the RTS index has fallen to the lowest since June 7 on the background of weakening of the ruble," Mikhail Shulgin, head of the global research department of Otkritie Investments, said.

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the external background was moderately negative as in Europe the Euro Stoxx 50 index decreased about 0.8% on fears of a looming recession. The business activity index of the euro zone outperformed expectations, although showed a significant decline of growth in June as compared with May.

The decrease of the nearest Brent and WTI futures accelerated to about 1.5% on recession fears, she said.

In the U.S., the S&P 500 index futures fell about 0.7%, a new session in the red zone. According to Kozhukhova, the market expects a release of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) protocols on Wednesday.

Norilsk Nickel President Vladimir Potanin said that he had confirmed an agreement to start discussing a merger with RUSAL, which caused a price jump in the RUSAL and En+ Group (+5.79%) shares, Kozhukhova said.

Yandex grew 2.49% on the back of media reports about the future acquisition of Delivery Club from Sberbank and VK, the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+5.93	197.3	14.694
Sberbank	+1.57	133.5	6.901
Norilsk Nickel	-1.9	16700	4.417
RUSAL	+6.02	57.51	3.248
Novatek	-5.35	970.2	2.654

(55.0858 rubles – U.S. $1)

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