MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. By the end of trading session on the Moscow Exchange on Tuesday, the MOEX index dropped by 0.5% to 2,119.37 points, RTS went down by 2.43%, to 967.24 points.
The dollar-to-ruble rate rose by 1.71% up to 68.87 rubles, the euro rate went up by 1.89%, up to 73.5 rubles.
"The Russian stock market was in the red on Tuesday. One of the reasons for the decline was the dividend cutoff in heavyweight shares of Lukoil, as a result of which the shares sank by more than 10%. At the same time, most Russian shares traded in positive territory. Meanwhile the ruble continued to decline, and oil prices tried to gain a foothold at $80," said Alexander Bakhtin, investment strategist at BCS World of Investments.
According to the expert, the shares of exporters, which occupy more than 60% in the Moscow Exchange index, are not in a hurry to take advantage of the ruble's weakness.
"Uncertainty prevails over traders due to the uncertainty of the full picture of the impact the EU embargo and the price cap will have on Russia's oil exports, as well as Moscow's response to these restrictions," the expert said. He believes that before the January holidays, many investors show restraint in purchases, fearing the emergence of any foreign market or geopolitical negative events in the first New Year's days.
On Tuesday, the leaders of growth were the shares of metallurgical and coal mining company Mechel (+7.01%), timber holding Segezha Group (+5.09%) and the second largest gold producer in Russia Polymetal (+4.45%).
In terms of decline the leaders were the shares of oil company Lukoil (-12.04%), Fesco (-2.05%) and steel producer MMK (-1.43%) and retailer Detsky Mir (-0.6%).
According to BCS World of Investments, on December 21, the MOEX index will be formed within the range of 2,075 - 2,175 points, the forecast range for the dollar-ruble pair is 68-70 rubles.