Russian stocks fall back into negative territory on Thursday amid oil price downturn
(technical repeat)
MOSCOW. Aug 10 (Interfax) - Russian stock prices held steady throughout much of the trading session on Thursday, despite negative sentiment on stock exchanges abroad and rising geopolitical tension surrounding North Korea, but fell into negative territory near the close of trading amid a downturn in oil prices.
The MICEX closed the day down 0.79% to 1960.23 points and the RTS was down 0.55% to 1029.26.
Leading blue-chip decliners were Mechel (-3.5%), Yandex (-2.7%), Rosseti (-2.5%), Moscow Exchange (-2.2%), VTB (-2.1%), Federal Grid Co (-2%), Aeroflot (-1.5%), Rosneft (-1.4%), Lukoil (-1.3%), Norilsk Nickel (-1%), Inter RAO (-0.8%), Magnit (-0.8%), RusHydro (-0.7%), AFK Sistema (-0.7%), Sberbank of Russia (-0.7% for ordinary and -0.6% for preferred shares), Bashneft (-0.6%), Gazprom (-0.5%), Tatneft (-0.5%), Surgutneftegas (-0.4% for ordinary and -0.6% for preferred shares), Novatek (-0.2%) and Rostelecom (-0.1%).
There were advances for PJSC Polyus (+4.2%), Raspadskaya (+1.7%), Dixy Group (+1.4%), TMK (+1.3%), Mosenergo (+0.6%), Gazprom Neft (+0.6%) and Transneft preferred shares (+1.7%).
Combined trading volume on the main Moscow Exchange market was 22.288 billion rubles, of which 5.194 billion rubles in Sberbank ordinary shares and 2.16 billion rubles in Gazprom shares.
