Russian stock market opens week with losses, indexes lose 2.5%
MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax) - Russia's stock market hit its lowest point since mid-December as both the RTS Index and the MICEX Stock Exchange lost around 2.5% owing to negative trends on world markets.
Benchmark stocks on the RTS Index dropped by 2.54% to 1,375.34 points while the MICEX Stock Exchange went down by 2.47% to 1,322.15 points.
Futures on the RTS topped the base asset by three points, indicating a neutral mood among investors.
Decliners for the day on the MICEX were Gazprom , down 3.8%, VTB - 2.6%, Lukoil - 2.3%, Rostelecom - 0.4%, Rosneft - 3%, Gazprom Neft - 0.8%, Tatneft - 1.6%, Sberbank - 4.9% and Surgutneftegas - 1.2%.
MMC Norilsk Nickel increased on the MICEX Stock Exchange by 0.3% but fell 6.4% on the RTS.
Posting gains among second tier stocks were VSMPO-Avisma , up 4.2%, TGK-9 - 2.8%, Mechel - 2.5%, OGK-1 - 2.1% and North-West Telecom - 1.3%.
Posting losses were Sibirtelecom , down 6.5%, Razgulay - 5.7%, Inter RAO UES - 4.9%, IDGC North Caucasus - 4.9%.
Total RTS Classic Trading for the day came to $33.397 million, RTS Standard - $481.479 million and MICEX Stock Exchange - 65.545 billion rubles.