Russian shares slip in thin volume .
MOSCOW 1996-08-28
Leading Russian shares edged down on Wednesday in thin volume in the absence of Western orders , traders said .
The Russian Trading System index of 21 issues fell 1.64 percent to 180.38 on volume of $ 4.38 million .
" The market was extremely quiet today , some profit-taking locally , no Western orders , " said Nick Mokhoff , director of sales and trade at Alliance-Menatep . "
We are just a bit lower with a lot of inactivity during the whole day . "
Alexander Babayan , managing director at CentrInvest Securities , said the volume of orders was four to five times lower than a week ago .
As often , the most volume was in UES .
" Unified is one of the blue chips , which has more prospects than anybody else does , because they have ADRs supposedly coming up , " Mokhoff said .
UES officials said last week the board had not yet approved the final version of its application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to issue ADRs .
UES fell to $ 0.0817 from $ 0.0822 at Tuesday 's close with 8.90 million shares changing hands .
Gazprom was the loser of the day with prices closing at $ 0.300 , down from $ 0.355 on Tuesday and $ 0.445 on Monday .
Mokhoff said uncertainty about when Gazprom would issue ADRs and about whether shares from the Russian market could be converted into ADRs had hurt prices .
" Western investors ... will be investing in ADRs and I do not think people in Russia will be able to come up with the money for the underlying shares to drive the Russian shares to those levels , " Mokhoff said .
Gazprom has also tightened the rules restricting shareholers ' rights to trade its shares .
Mosenergo closed at at $ 0.958 after $ 0.966 , Rostelekom fell to $ 2.56 from $ 2.58 and LUKoil was $ 9.82 after $ 9.85 .
-- Julie Tolkacheva , Moscow Newsroom , +7095 941 8520