Russian stock market makes upward correction on Tuesday
MOSCOW. Aug 18 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market made an upward correction on Tuesday following yesterday's losses but posted slight losses by trading's end owing to the release of weak U.S. economic stats.
Benchmark stocks on the MICEX Stock Exchange remained at 1,035.45 points while the RTS Index slipped by 0.42% to 1,001.52 points.
The drop in RTS futures came to 22 points, indicating investors have negative expectations for the market.
Posting gains on the MICEX were MMC Norilsk Nickel , up 0.3%, Gazprom Neft - 0.4%, Sberbank - 1.1% and VTB - 5.1%.
Posting losses for the day were Gazprom , down 2.1%, Lukoil - 1.5%, Rosneft - 0.5%, Surgutneftegas - 0.3%, Tatneft - 0.3% and Polyus Gold - 1%.
Among second tier stocks on the MICEX, Siberian power quotations posted gains as energy prices recovered in the wake of the accident at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP on Monday. Posting gains were Irkutskenergo , up 24.9%, Kuzbassenergo - 16%, Yakutskenergo - 10.2%, OGK-4 - 8.8% and TGK-5 (RTS: TGKE_) - 6.7%.
Posting losses were Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine (NLMK), down 2.4%, Mosenergosbyt - 2%, Avtovaz - 1.5%, Magnit - 1.4% and Polymetal - 1.3%.
Total RTS Classic Trading on Tuesday came to $6.17 million, RTS Standard - $194.7 million and MICEX Stock Exchange deals - 58 billion rubles, led by Sberbank with 23.2 billion rubles in common share transactions.