‘This was not a good morning for the Russian stock market, as American stock indices kept going down and the oil kept getting cheaper. In addition, the Prime Minister’s unfavorable comments related to Mechel’s primary proprietor were a shot in the eye for the market. These comments led to people selling Mechel’s ADRs and consequently to considerable changes in the whole mining and metallurgical sector,’ FINAM Investment Company’s analyst Denis Kruglov said to UrBC.

RTS index dropped below 2,000 points on July 25, 2008, coming to 1,994.35 points on Friday morning.

‘At the moment, Raspadskaya, Belon, and TMK have already lost 7% to 14% of their market capitalization. Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works, Severstal, and some other mining and metallurgical companies appear to follow suit,’ Denis Kruglov added.