Russian stocks fall back toward 1,600 pts on RTS; Gazprom gains
MOSCOW. Nov 26 (Interfax) - Russian stocks retreated on Friday amid declines in equities and oil prices due to escalating tensions in Korea, but Gazprom gained on expectations that E.ON's 3.5% stake in the gas giant would be sold to a strategic investor.
The MICEX index closed down 0.31% to 1,566.41 points and the RTS index fell 0.99% to 1,602.48 points.
For the week of November 22-26, the MICEX index gained 0.6% and the RTS edged up 0.1%.
Gazprom rose 1.1% to 174.5 rubles on MICEX on Friday, while Rostelecom gained 0.1% and Tatneft was up 0.4%.
The leading decliners among the blue chips were VTB - down 1.1% on MICEX and 1.4% on the RTS, Sberbank Russia - down 1.2% and 3.8% respectively, and MMC Norilsk Nickel - down 1.6% on MICEX.
In the second tier on MICEX, OMZ declined 3%, IDGC of North Caucasus was down 2.3%, Mechel was down 2%, Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Company (NLMK) - down 1.2% and RusHydro - down 1.2%.
The leading advancers were TGK-2 , which gained 10%, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods rose 7.5%, TGK-13 was up 5%, Uralkali - up 2.9% and Polymetal - up 2.8%.
Volume totaled $5.78 million on RTS Classica, $447.66 million on RTS Standard and 53.818 billion rubles on MICEX.
RTS$#&: AFKS, GAZP, GMKN, GUTB, HYDR, MRKK, MTLR, MTSS, NLMK, OMZZ, PMTL, PRSB, RTKM, SBER, TATN, TGKB, TGKM, TRNF, URKA, VTBR