OREANDA-NEWS. On 13 March 2008 was announced, that during the week of 3 March –7 March 2008 the Russian stock market experienced a drop down in prices for the majority of its liquid securities. The RTS Index (RTSI) slipped to 2,012.65 points (2.49 %) from 2,063.94 points on February 29th. By the end of the week RTSI was 6.64 % higher compared to one month ago (1,887.41 points on February,7) and 13.90 % higher compared to one year ago ( 1,767.10 points on March 7th, 2007) Out of RTSI’s total 50 constituents, 30 had negative impact on the Index (minus 61.1 points overall). Nine securities behaved positively (plus 9.8 points). The price for 11 securities remained unchanged Most of the negative impact on the Index was from falling prices for common shares of JSC Sberbank of Russia and JSC Gasprom. Each of them contributed a bit less than 15 points drop. Positive push last week was coming from the common shares of JSC GMK Norilsky Nickel and JSC Novatek (7.5 points in total).

More than 50 % of the RTSI total capitalization is concentrated in the oil and gas sector. The other major contributors are metallurgy – (17.9%), the banking sector – (15.4 %), power industry – (6.2 %) and telecommunications – (3.7 %). On the sector level, the banking sector influenced RTSI most negatively (minus 22.4 points), followed by oil and gas (minus 19.8 points).

RTSI Futures Contracts
The weekly trading in RTSI derivatives amounted to RUR 205.9 billion, or 2.1 mln contracts. Futures on RTSI remain the most liquid contract on the Russian stock market making up more than 61.9 % of the total FORTS (Futures and Options of the RTSI) turnover in money terms.

Over the week, RTSI shed 2.5 %, with the March contracts (RTS-3.08) falling in price for only 0.6 %, and June contracts (RTS-6.08 %) - 0.4 %. Last week was marked by significant oscillatory movement of the RTS Index. By the middle of the week the index futures were in the benefit, however, were traded by the spot by the end of the week. The futures ended with a premium to their underlying asset: the contango for the March contracts was 21.4 points.

Total open positions on the index futures grew by 9.7 thousands contracts. However, the investors’ interest towards the March future contracts started to reduce gradually. The open interest for the June future contracts increased in the meantime.

The second-tier stocks were down across the majority of stocks. The RTS – 2 Index shrank 1.45 % to reach 2,573.70 points (2,611.49 points on February, 29). By the end of the week RTS – 2 Index was 7.1 % higher compared to end of previous month (2,402.34 points on February, 7) and 38.3 % higher compared to one year ago (1,861.19 points on March,7, 2007).

Of the 77 constituent stocks, 34 had negative impact on RTS-2 dynamics (minus 56.7 points in total). Eleven stocks behaved positively (plus18.9 points). The price for 32 securities remained unchanged. Most negative impact was related to the falling prices of common shares of JSC Sylvinit, JSC Akron and JSC Uralkali(minus 26.5 points overall). Significant positive impact was related to the rising price of common shares of JSC Gas (plus 7.1 points). Metals and mining (plus 17.7 %) has the largest weight in RTS-2, followed by chemical industry (15.7 %) and power industry (15.2 %). The chemical industry securities were the ones responsible for most of the drop in the RTS-2 Index – minus 25.7 points in total.

The RTS family of indices

On Monday, 3rd of March, the Russian stock market opened significantly lower than it ended last Friday. Further on, significant variation in prices was observed for the most liquid securities, by the end of the week the majority of sectors were down. The biggest losses were in the RTS – Financials (minus 5.6 %). The RTS – Industrials showed significant upturn: plus 3.6 % compared to end of last week.