"Things got better in the world finance market as news came of George Bush doing fine in the US presidential poll, so the Russian stock exchange started the day moderately bullish. Bids and offers were lax, however, so the Russian Trading System had made a token change by midday against its 650 support level. The Yukos was alone to badly plummet. There was an offer avalanche as the petroleum mammoth announced an upcoming extraordinary shareholders' meeting. To gather December 20, it will decide whether the company is to go bankrupt or in for liquidation. A majority of blue chips came down-but bears soon withdrew, and the market was cautiously groping up," says Olga Belenkaya, Olma brokerage analyst.
"Though the other blue chips were doing better [than the Yukos], bidders displayed no enthusiasm. It was the same in the second echelon. The whole market was marking time for big fish to join in. Expectations failed, and the day finished with minor deals," says Roman Andreyev of the CentreInvestSecurities.
The day brought the RTS 0.52% up to 657.69, with 130 transactions to a lump US$15.2 million.
Alexei Logvin, Interfintrade analyst, tracks the day's laxity down to the Yukos plight. He is, however, rather optimistic as "the market shrugged off another piece of bad news coming from the Yukos". The LUKoil, another petroleum mammoth, was doing somewhat better than any other stock all through the day. "It was keeping steadily behind other petroleum companies for two months. Now, the LUKoil may try to cover up the lag," he expects.
The Yukos came 10.82% down on the RTS, against yesterday's closing time. The other blue chips were slightly up-the LUKoil by 1.76%, Rostelecom 1.18%, Surgutneftegas 1.02%, UES 0.96%, and Mosenergo 0.35%.
