RTS(Moscow)Market Overviews
Russian Stock Market Overview30/01/2006-03/02/2006
During the 5th week of 2006 the Russian Stock Exchange index (RTSI) has been falling. However, the total trading volume was, on the whole, quite impressive - near 208.8 billion EUR. This decrease was caused by the fall in shares’ value of some leading companies on the market. An additional factor could be the attempt of hackers to damage the RTS system.
Oil Company “Lukoil” (LKOH) was the main company that influenced the reduction of RTSI index during this week. By the 2nd of February the price of shares had reached the figure of 64,4 EUR per share. In addition to this, Mr. Alekperov, the president of the company, declared that the company had acquired the rights to quarry hydrocarbon, one of the energy sources, in the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, at the end of Thursday, February 02, 2006 the price of shares dropped dramatically by 3 %. The main reason for it was that the computers of Russian Stock Exchange were attacked by a virus, which held up the trading process for several hours. From then on the price of the shares was rising steadily, and it is expected to go up the next week.
JSC Gazprom (GAZP) faced 318 trades during the week, and total trading volume was at about 11 million EUR. The price of the shares was rising slightly all the week, at the end of Friday it reached a peak of 8,7 EUR per share. All this can be explained by the fact that the company started building a gas pipe line in the Baltic Sea. Besides that, Mr. Miller, the head of the company, visited the Republic of Greece, where questions connected with Russian-Greek collaboration in the sphere of energy were discussed. Most probably, the price of shares will be increasing the next week.
Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Corporation (NLMKG) did not experience any surprising results concerning the shares’ price. Its value remained constant during the week and the overall increase was quite negligible. The last trade’s price was 1.5 EUR per share, which is a bit more that on the 30th of January (1.49 EUR). One of the reasons why this company did not fail on the stock market, unlike e.g. Gazprom or Sberbank, was that it acquired the Danish steel producer DANSTEEL A/S, in other words NLMKG expands. Therefore, the company’s shareholders feel themselves quite confident acquiring its shares.
Savings bank of the Russian Federation (SBERPG) was one of these which influenced the most the decrease in RTSI, because the price per share fell unexpectedly already on Monday – by 3.06% from 23.08 EUR to 22.37 EUR. Its value fluctuated during the week, but could not resist from falling by the end of the week by almost the same (3.5) percentage and stopped at the level of 21.9 EUR. However, it should be added that after signing the contract with the Russian Olympic committee (the company is the general sponsor of Russian team in Turin, Italy on Winter Olympic Games) its value is expected to increase in the near future.
By Aleksejs Krecetovs
