OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 December 2008 was announced, that For the week of December 15 –December 19, 2008 the Russian stock market experienced a drop down in prices for the majority of its liquid shares.

The RTS Index (RTSI) slipped to 634,22 points (2,76%) from 652,21 points as of December 12th, 2008. By the end of the week the RTS Index was 4,68% higher than a month ago (605,84 points as of November 19, 2008), and 72,00% lower than a year ago (2264,95 points as of December 19, 2007).

Out of 50 RTSI’s total constituents 25 had a negative impact on it (minus 35,92 points overall), 15 securities behaved positively (plus 16,83 points). The price for 10 securities remained unchanged.

Most of the negative impact was coming  ordinary shares (minus 7,51 from Gazprom points), ordinary shares of OJSC "OC "Rosneft" ordinary shares (minus 7,03 points) and ОАО "LUKOIL" ordinary shares (minus 6,51 points).

Most of the positive impact on the RTSI dynamics was coming from the growing prices for ordinary shares of OJSC "Rostelecom" (plus 6,11 points) and JSC "NOVATEK" (plus 2,58 points).

Over 50% of the RTS total capitalization is accounted for by the oil and gas sector. Other major contributors were the banking sector – 15,58% and metals & mining sector– (12,38%).

On the sector level the major negative contributor was the oil and gas sector (minus 20,49 points overall) followed by the metals  points overall) & mining sector (minus 3,21and the financials sector (minus 2,63 points in total).

RTSI Futures Contracts

The weekly trading volume in RTSI derivatives amounted to 68,3 bln. roubles or 1,8 mln. contracts. Futures on the RTS Index remain the most liquid instrument on the Russian derivatives market, making up for 72,80% of the total FORTS turnover (Futures and Options on RTS) in money terms.

For the week the RTSI shed 2,76%, with March contracts (RTS-03.09) growing in price by 0,23% and June contracts (RTS-06.09) falling in price by 1,62%. Last week the RTS Index futures were trading near the spot, however by the end of the reviewed period the contango for March and June contracts stood at 1,54 points and 6,59 points respectively.

The total volume of open interest in the RTS Index futures measured in contracts decreased by 27,19%.

Second-tier stocks

For the week of December 15 –December 19, 2008 the second tier stocks market demonstrated a drop.

Over the reviewed week the RTS-2 Index shrank by 1,87% to 546,89 points (557,33 points as of December 12, 2008)

At the end of the week the RTS-2 Index was 5,82% lower than a month ago (580,71 points as of November 19, 2008) and closed 78,11% lower than a year ago (2498,56 points as of December 19 2007).

32 constituents out of 75 stocks on the basis of which the RTS-2 Index is calculated were pulling the Index downwards (minus 23,93 points overall) However, 8 instruments were offsetting the negative impact (plus 11,86 points) The price for 35 securities remained unchanged.

Most of the negative impact was from falling prices for ordinary shares of JSC "Aeroflot" (minus 7,50 points), Moscow Integrated Electricity Distribution Company (minus 2,17 points) and OJSC SOLLERS (minus 2,13 points).

The major positive contributor were ordinary shares of PJSC "NCSP" (plus 6,16 points) and JSC "Polymetal" ordinary shares (plus 2,14 points).

The largest weight in the RTS-2 Index had the following sectors: power industry (21,3%) followed by the consumer goods and trading (12,9%) and the telecommunications (12,4%).

Most of the RTS-2 Index drop was accounted for by securities of the following sectors: air transportation (minus 7,50 points in total), industrials (minus 4,13 points overall) and power industry (minus 3,56 points in total).