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Friday, March 29, 2024

Fall in crude weighs on Russian stocks

Russian stocks fell for a second day Wednesday, led by natural gas export monopoly Gazprom and Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender, after crude declined to a four-month low.

Crude lost 0.4 percent to $97.41 in New York, trading below $100 for the third day and heading towards its lowest close since June 28, Business Week reports.

Russia receives approximately half of its budget revenues from natural gas and oil sales.

The Micex Index dropped 0.5 percent to 1,520.73 in Moscow, while Gazprom, which has the heaviest weighting on the benchmark, fell 0.8 percent in Moscow and London. Sberbank decreased 1 percent in the Russian capital and 1.4 percent in London.

The declines brought Micex's advance from this year's low in June to 19 percent.

"The blue-chips are declining with the market today as crude oil has crossed the psychological threshold of $100," Sergey Kucherenko, who manages approximately $50 million in Russian equities at NOMOS-BANK in Moscow, said, according to Business Week. "The time has come for the market's correction."