RTS(Moscow)Market Overviews

Russian Stock Market Overview
13/02/2006-17/02/2006

At the 7th week of the current year RTS index was rising slowly, but steadily. However, on the 17th of February it more than tripled, that can be explained by the last trading day. The total trading volume was 368087259.55. The companies which have significantly influenced the RTSI include Lukoil, Sberbank, Surgutneftegas, and MMC "NORILSK NICKEL".

Mobile TeleSystems Open Joint Stock Company (MTSS) faced only 18 trades during the week, and total trading volume was approximately 1,05 million EUR. Nevertheless, MTSS was one of the companies which influenced the increase of RTSI index very much. In the middle of the week the price per one share was 5.45 EUR but by the end of Friday it had gone up by 6.4% to a peak of 5.80 EUR per share. The main reason for this was the announcement of company’s administration that the quality of service provided had gone up due to larger covering, and the number of MTSS clients had rocketed dramatically the recent months. The price of the shares is expected to rise the next week.

United Energy System of Russia (EESR) faced 217 trades, and total trading volume by the end of the week had reached a figure of 65.05 million EUR. The price of the shares was not stable and changed dramatically in both directions. Thus, on 13th February it was 0.501 EUR per share but at the middle of the week one share was sold for 0.553 EUR. From the on the price was declining steadily, and at the end of Friday it cost only 0.517 EUR. The main reason for such a situation was the fact that additional shares of “Mosenergo” appeared in the Russian Stock Exchange, which induced a drop in price of the shares. Most probably, the value of shares will be fluctuating the next week because the environment in the energy system is relatively stable.

It was a successful week for Mining and Metallurgical Company Norilsk Nickel (GMKN) which shares’ price increased by 5.39% (peaked at 78.73 EUR per share) on the last day of trade. However it had experienced a fall from 73.44 EUR to 72.01 EUR on the 13-14 of February. On the whole, this success at the end of the week comes by no surprise, since the company was announced the winner of 5th competition "The Russian organization of high social efficiency". Moreover, for the first time Norilsk Nickel revealed the information concerning the maintenance of metals of platinum group in stocks of ore and minerals, developed by the Company, that had a positive effect.

JSC Gazprom (GAZP) shares were sold at a relatively small price (round 6.52 EUR) during the whole week. However, despite this fact, its’ value managed to rocket on Friday (6.74 EUR per share) and utterly compensate the steady fall. The company has had four working visits in foreign countries for the past two weeks, including the visits to Venezuela and Turkmenistan on 14.02 and 17.02 respectively. This external politics and co-operation led to the positive performance on the Russian Stock market. However, the future forecast does not show any significant rise in the share value.


By Aleksejs Krecetovs