Stocks plunge after Turkey shoots down Russian Su-24 in Syria

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks plummeted on Tuesday due to a surge in geopolitical tensions after Turkey shot downed Russia’s Su-24 fighter jet and it crashed in Syria, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 3.11% to 1,810.05 and the RTS decreased 3.34% to 867.54.

“After a morning growth, Russian stock indices turned sharply and plunged down due to a large-scale flee out of risks…after news on the Russian Su-24 fighter crash near Turkey’s border,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the aircraft was one kilometer away from the Turkish border during the flight in Syria and it fell four kilometers away from the border after being shot down by an air-to-air missile of a Turkish F-16 aircraft. Turkey said it shot downed the Russian plane as it had violated the country’s air space and failed to respond to requests to leave.

“The news that Turkey shot down a Russian military plane near the Turkish–Syrian border became an unexpected stimuli for sales…It may lead to serious mid-term consequences, which bear no good for the Russian stock market,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

One of the greatest contributors to the contraction of Russian stocks was Sberbank, which lost 3.98% to 105.60 rubles per common share. The demand for shares has significantly increased over the past few days, and the reason for that became clear after CEO German Gref on Monday stood for a full privatization of the central bank’s stake in Sberbank, Manzhos said.

Fertilizer producer Uralkali outperformed the market and grew 1.73% to 173 rubles per share after the company’s board of directors approved the decision to file a request to delist its global depositary receipts from the London Stock Exchange, which may be done from December 22. But the company plans to keep listing on the Moscow Exchange, Kovalyov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.98	105.60	16.553
Gazprom	-4.18	145.65	8.910
Lukoil	-2.86	2576.90	4.726
Norilsk Nickel	-1.56	9344.00	3.357
Magnit	-2.86	11900.00	3.098

(65.5973 rubles – U.S. $1)

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