Russian stock market mood turns sour Thurs
MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market's optimistic attitude turned sour on Thursday after the eurozone published weak GDP data for Q4 2012; decent U.S. labor market statistics were unable to fix its downward turn.
By the end of the day's trade, the MICEX stock index had fallen 1.2% to 1519.22 points, and the RTS index had declined 1.5% to 1588.31 points.
The majority of benchmark stocks on the Moscow Exchange decreased by up to 3.4%, led by MMC Norilsk Nickel (-3.4%) and followed by Gazprom (-2.2%), LUKOIL (-0.3%), NOVATEK (-1.8%), Rosneft (-1.9%), Rostelecom (-1.3%), Surgutneftegas (-0.7%), Tatneft (-0.8%) and FGC UES (-2.1%).
VTB performed better than the market, up 1.5% for the day.
Second-tier losers included IDGC Holding (-3.3%), OGK-5 (-3%), NLMK (-2.3%) and TGK-9 (-2.2%).
Second-tier winners were VSMPO-Avisma (+0.5%), TGK-2 (+0.5%) and Severstal (+0.4%).
Combined trading volume on the main Moscow Exchange market for the day came to 51.088 billion rubles (15.396 billion of which in ordinary Sberbank shares, and 9.596 billion of which in VTB shares). In the Standard sector it was $80.4 million, and in the Classica sector - $4.33 million.
