Bull bets on Russian stock market fall flat due to falling oil prices
MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - The bulls on the Russian stock market, encouraged by the rise in Europe, tested the resistance of the 1450-point mark on the MICEX index on Thursday, but their plans were foiled by falling oil prices, which pushed the index back to yesterday's level.
By the end of the day's trade, the MICEX index had risen 0.2% to 1438.54 points, while the RTS index had fallen 0.2% to 1467 points.
The majority of benchmark stocks on the MICEX-RTS stock exchange had mixed results of up to 1.3%, with the day's biggest gainers being MMC Norilsk Nickel (+2.8%) and Rostelecom (+3.4%).
Thursday's losers were Gazprom (-0.8%), Sberbank of Russia (-0.3%), Surgutneftegas (-0.5% and -0.9% for prefs) and FGC UES (-1.1%).
Second-tier winners included TGK-9 (+5.9%), Sollers (+2.1%), Avtovaz (+1.8%) and Irkutskenergo (+1.3%).
Second-tier losers were OGK-2 (-1.9%), AFK Sistema (-1.9%), Severstal (-1.5%), Mosenergosbyt (-1.2%), IDGC Holding (-0.9%) and Aeroflot (-0.9%).
Combined trading on the main MICEX-RTS market for the day came to 27.073 billion rubles (5.844 billion of which in ordinary Sberbank shares). In the Standard sector it was $59.335 million, and in the Classica sector - $4.396 million.
