Tensions with West, MegaFon’s dive drag Russian stocks down

MOSCOW, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed lower on Thursday hit by continuing political tensions with Britain and an almost 10% plunge of mobile operator MegaFon, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.12% to 2,272.49 and the RTS lost 0.31% to 1,247.28.

“The crisis in relations with Great Britain again prevented the Russian stock market from finding growth drivers. However, the lack of a strong reaction of the domestic government helped restrain pessimists,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

He added that the market has calmed down fast after the ex-spy poisoning story spurred fears about possible repatriation of Russian citizens’ cash as the British government’s discussed a freeze of their accounts.

Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofya Kirsanova said that MegaFon was among the biggest losers on the back of a weak 2017 financial report and its board of directors’ decision to pay no dividends for the year. The stock slid 9.03% to 524.9 rubles.

Grocery retailer Magnit outperformed the market adding 3.6% to 5,149 rubles after second biggest bank VTB Bank said its affiliate closed the acquisition of 29.1% in Magnit from its founder Sergei Galitsky.

Rosbank, a Russian subsidiary of French banking group Societe Generale, soared 1.4% to 57.9 rubles on the news its IFRS net profit for 2017 tripled to 10.4 billion rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-3.04%	254.51	20.242
Gazprom	-0.4%	138.25	4.764
Lukoil	+1.55%	3800	3.551
Magnit	+3.6%	5149	3.140
MegaFon	-9.03%	524.9	2.114

(56.9372 rubles – U.S. $1)

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