17 November 2003 05:37
Russian stocks lose 1.8% to 4.4% Monday
MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) - Russian blue chips fell 1.8% to 4.4% in increased selling Monday amid unfavorable
international markets and a lack of good news at home.
The market started to go down early on and there were almost no
buyers left, Antanta Capital trader Alexander Pankov said. "The
Norilsk Nickel was an exception with demand remaining firm as investors expect good profits and dividends thanks to
high prices on the nonferrous metals market.
increase in volumes on a falling market indicates that more and more investors are thinking about continuing the
decline," he said.
Speculators took no notice, for example, of President Vladimir
Putin's meeting with the Russian Union of Industrialists and
"There is no particular good or bad news able to encourage play yet, and the market continues to gradually slide
back."
"Western markets are not triggering optimism, although their influence on our balance of forces is not that
obvious and the tumble in quotes is probably due to a lack of motivation to buy," Anna Divinskaya of Olimpiyskiy
bank told Interfax.
The market has reached such price thresholds that some investors have been forced to close long positions, said
Alexander Baranov, the vice president of Russkie Fondy investment group, said. "There is not enough good news to
push shares up. The market is ignoring the statements that could be labeled positive, while it takes into account all
the negatives," he said.
Entrepreneurs or the fact that the RUIE re-elected former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky a member of its board. The
market also remained indifferent to Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref's statement that the
Gazprom share market would be liberalized in 2004.
The market has left 520 points on the benchmark RTS index behind
and testing the 500 points level lies ahead, Pankov said. "We will
The seemingly good news that Standard & Poor's assigned a 'BB-' long-term corporate credit rating
to TNK-BP probably had more of a negative impact on investor mood, Baranov said.
"The TNK-BP rating is one notch below Russia's country rating. This indirectly suggests that S&P took
into account the political risks in our country," he said.
Uncertainty also concerns Unified Energy System. The UES reform committee meets this week and needs to decide whether
cash will be used at auctions for wholesale generating company assets and if it can then in what proportion to shares,
Divinskaya said.
probably see 500 points this week, but whether we stay there remains open."
On the RTS, prices went down 3.4% for Unified Energy System (to 24.7 cents, their level in the middle of summer),
3.6% for Mosenergo, 2.5% for Lukoil, 2.7% for Rostelecom, 4.4% for Sibneft, 2.5% for Tatneft, 3.1% for Yukos, 3% for
Surgutneftegaz, and 1.8% for Sberbank.
The RTS index fell 2.86% to 511.40 points.
The MICEX composite went down 2.29% to 461.77.
Trading volume totaled $16.106 million (including $8.025 million in direct deals) on the RTS, and reached 9.898
billion rubles on the MICEX.
Gazprom shares on the St. Petersburg exchange, traded through RTS terminals, went down 1.8% to 37.5 rubles in volume
of 9.476 million shares.
The S&P/RUX composite ruble index went down 2.39% to 614.35. The index in dollars was off 2.26% to 122.79.
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