Tuesday?s equity market trading repeated the previous session?s pattern of early strength reflecting strong domestic liquidity, then giving way to selling pressure as international investors declined to follow the positive lead from Moscow. The stickiness of the market despite booming commodity prices and low interest rates reflects the persistent Yukos-related risk premium. The benchmark RTS Index (down 0.6% yesterday to 591.7) is accordingly stuck at its level of just before Khodorkovsky?s arrest last October. Even if resistance continues to a break-out above 600, the market will remain well supported in the meantime.
Among individual stock movements yesterday, the most notable were LUKoil's mere 0.8% gain after the company?s sound 3Q03 financials (indicating that these above average results were priced in), the 2.9% retreat for Vimpelcom now subject to bureaucratic harassment, and the 2.5% fall in Norilsk Nickel as the latest nickel price frenzy abates.
