Russian stock market declines following Europe, but U.S. gains help market at close of trades
MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market on Thursday posted steady losses following Europe on news that Spain's rating has been downgraded by Moody's. However, by the evening, the decline was eclipsed by an upswing on U.S. markets driven by expectations of new stimulus measures from the U.S. Fed.
Benchmark stocks on the MICEX went down by 0.03% to 1,346.06 points while the RTS Index decreased by 0.4%. Ruble-based blue chips on the MICEX-RTS exchange changed within 2.4%.
Decliners for the day were VTB , down 0.6%, Gazprom - 0.1%, Rosneft - 0.7%, Rostelecom - 2.4%, Surgutneftegas - 0.3%, Tatneft - 1.4%,, Federal Grid Company UES - 1.1%.
Advancers for the day were Gazprom Neft , up 0.5%, Lukoil - 0.3%, NOVATEK - 0.9%, MMC Norilsk Nickel - 1.6%, prefs for Sberbank - 2%, and Surgutneftegas - 1%.
Posting losses among second tier stocks on the MICEX-RTS Index were OGK-2 , down 3%, OGK-5 - 3%, MTS - 2.7%, TGK-9 - 2.6%, Irkutskenergo - 2.5%.
Posting gains were shares in O2TV, up 3%, Magnit - 1.7%, and KamAZ - 1.4%.
Total stock trading on the MICEX-RTS main market for the day came to 22.48 billion rubles (7.89 billion rubles of which went to Sberbank common shares), Standard sector deals - $140.62 million, and Classica deals - $1.386 million.
