Trader activity in trading Russian shares continues to remain low

The activity of traders in trading in Russian shares continues to remain low. Yesterday, trading volumes on the RTS decreased by almost half compared to the first day after the holiday - just over $50 million. On the MICEX, trading volumes also decreased - from 8 billion to 6.5 billion rubles.
During the first half of the day, trading was carried out with some optimism; quotes of most shares continued to grow, which had begun the day before. However, in the afternoon everything changed, and the shares, with rare exceptions, were already in the red. As a result, the RTS and MICEX indices closed lower, losing 0.6% and 1.17%, respectively. The Kommersant index fell by 0.4%. “This is a rollback after a sharp emotional outburst and growth the day before,” says Aton IG analyst Anatoly Kaplin. “But oil is still very expensive, which pushes oil chips up, except for the risky Yukos and Sibneft.” Indeed, as on the previous day, the securities of Yukos and Sibneft were the leaders of the fall among the blue chips. Following the results of trading on the RTS, their quotations dropped yesterday by 3.1% and 3.3%, respectively. As a result, YUKOS quotes found themselves close to the levels to which they fell in the first days after the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. At the same time, the news of another search at YUKOS did not actually affect the company's quotes. Firstly, it arrived too late, when the auction was ending. Secondly, they did not add anything new to the issue of the state’s attitude towards the company. In addition, traders consider the achieved levels to be a rather strong resistance level. “Sales of YUKOS continue, there are fears of a decline in the weight of this security in the Morgan Stanley index,” notes IFC Metropol trader Alexey Bachurin. “Often there is simply a shift to other shares.” According to traders, we are primarily talking about the securities of LUKOIL, whose register is being closed today, and the company has promised to pay high dividends. It is not surprising that the shares of this oil company have been among the market favorites for the second day. Yesterday they rose in price by another 2.6%.

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 81 dated 05/07/2004, page 8

Themes:

YUKOS. Fate of assets

LUKOIL received more money from YUKOS