Blue chips fall on Russian market

Blue chips have dropped significantly at the beginning of trade on Russian stock exchanges today amid negative news coming from international financial markets. As of 1:20 p.m., prices for the majority of blue chips went down 2 to 3 percent on the RTS exchange. In particular, RAO UES, the Mosenergo energy utility and Rostelecom plummeted more than 3 percent and shares of Sberbank fell almost 3 percent. The RTS index was down at 374.33 points, which was 1.37 percent lower compared to the closing on March 14.

Analysts noted that the dynamics of share prices were negatively influenced by the destabilized situation on the oil market. They explained that concerns about a possible sharp fall in oil prices after the beginning of a war in Iraq were becoming more acute and this had a negative impact on prices for Russian oil shares.