Russia follows int'l stock markets down
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market followed the international markets down on May 31, although the drop was cushioned by good U.S. data later on.
Russian Grids plummeted 10% and Gazprom rose 3% in light of the changes to the MSCI Russia index that take effect on June 3.
The MICEX stock index closed down 0.8% to 1350.17, although it traded in a wide range between 1340 and 1370 during the day. The RTS fell 1.4% to 1331.43. Benchmark stocks fell up to 5.5% on average on the Moscow Exchange.
The MICEX fell 4.1% in the week and the RTS fell 4.1%. They indexes fell 2.6% and 5.4% in May and 8.5% and 12.8% in January-May.
VTB rose 1% but there were losses for Tatneft (-4.2%), Lukoil (-2.2%), Surgutneftegas (-2%) and Sberbank prefs (-5.5%, to 72.6 rubles), which fell on news the bank does not plan to convert them into ordinary shares.
Second-tier losers included Belon (-15.6%), RusHydro (-6.6%), TGK-2 (-4.3%) and OGK-5 (-3.7%).
There were gains for Severstal (+2.3%), Irkutskenergo (+1.9%), Sollers (+1.8%), Aeroflot (+1.4%) and Uralkali (+1.1%). ZIL soared 38.1%, recovering a week of losses.
Combined trading volume on the main MICEX-RTS market was 49 billion rubles, of which 11.275 billion rubles in Sberbank ordinary shares. Standard market turnover was $9.191 million and Classica - $5.891 million.