07 May 2004 01:56
Stock indexes tumble to three-month lows
The S&P/RUX composite ruble index was down 3.09% to 751.77 as of
2:00 p.m., Moscow time, and the index in dollars was off 3.01% to
MOSCOW. May 7 (Interfax) - Russian stock indexes tumbled to three- month lows Friday due to decline across the blue
chips sector with demand from both foreign and Russian investors lacking.
The RTS index fell 2.87% to 614.88 points.
The MICEX composite dropped 2.87% to 554.75.
Blue chips were down 0.6% to 4.9%. Yukos saw the heaviest drop of
4.9% to $9.51, its level in December 2003. Lukoil was close behind,
155.10.
falling 4.6% to $27.9, with the company's shareholder register closing May 7.
There was news about another raid at a Yukos office on Thursday evening and that led to a drop in prices for Yukos
ADR.
The market is toppling on all fronts and speculators are not looking at the high oil prices, which should really
encourage demand for oil stocks, said Rodin Suleimanov of Uniastrum bank.
"There are few that believe that shares will surge in the near future and in fact there are not many investors
trading during the in- between May holiday period. There is no support for companies for which the shareholder register
closes on Friday - especially Lukoil and Gazprom (Nizhnovenergo and Uralsvyazinform registers also close May 7). Those
who wanted to receive dividends bought Lukoil or Gazprom earlier and the shares are now falling with the rest of the
market," he said.
Among the external events that have had a negative impact on the market is the Bank of England's interest rate
increase to 4.25% from 4%, said Anatoly Kaplin of the Aton brokerage. The move indicates the approach of an interest
rate hike in the United States with the Federal Reserve due to meet next at the end of June, he said. "European and
American markets reacted badly to the news and this affected the Russian market," he said.
The Russian market does not plan to stop falling for now, Ivan Dorofeev of Olimpiyskiy bank said. "The market is
aiming to drop to 600 points on the RTS index and it looks like this level will be beaten," he said. However,
demand could pick up next week as prices will be appealing, he added.
On the RTS, prices dropped 3.3% for Unified Energy System, 4.5% for Norilsk Nickel, 3.7% for Rostelecom, 3% for
Surgutneftegas, 4.5% for Tatneft, 2.6% for Sberbank, and 3.5% for Sibneft.
Mosenergo slid just 0.6% to 7.75 cents, which Dorofeev says is because the company's shareholder register closes
on May 13.
Trading volume totaled $8.999 million on the RTS (including $3.155 million in direct deals), and was 5.18 billion
rubles on the MICEX.
Gazprom shares on the St. Petersburg exchange were down 3.2% at 57.28 rubles in volume of 11.068 million shares. [RU
ASIA EUROPE EEU EMRG STX MET ENR ELG TEL E BNK INSI] me
[Interfax] |
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