Russian stocks drop to three-week low as fighting breaks out in Ukraine
MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax) - Russian stocks dropped sharply later in the session on Tuesday as fighting broke out in southeastern Ukraine. Banks and energy stocks led the decline.
The MICEX index ended down 2.5% to 1,311.01 points and the RTS was down 3.1% to 1,142.96.
Blue chip decliners included VTB (-2.9%), Gazprom (-2.5%), Lukoil (-1.6%), Novatek (-1.9%), Norilsk Nickel (-1.3%), Polyus Gold (-3.4%), Rosneft (-3.4%), Rostelecom (-1.8%), Sberbank of Russia (-4% for ordinary shares and -7.5% for preferred), Surgutneftegas (-2.5%), Tatneft (-2.2%), Federal Grid Co (-6.3%) and Inter RAO UES (-6.1%).
Decliners in the second tier included Aeroflot Russian Airlines (-6.2%), RusHydro (-6.1%), M.Video (-5.7%), Severstal (-5.4%), Russian Grids (-5.3%) and TGK-1 (-3.3%).
Advancers included Kuzbass Fuel Co (KTK) (+5.5%), Rusal RDR (+4.1%), Acron (+0.8%) and Alrosa (+0.5%).
Combined trading volume on the main MICEX-RTS market was 41.392 billion rubles, of which 14.614 billion rubles in Sberbank ordinary shares.
