S&P downgrades 14 Russian majors: The Standard & Poor’s ratings agency yesterday ( February 4) announced that it had downgraded a number of major Russian corporations – including Gazprom, MegaFon and Russian Railways – in line with its decision last week also to download Russia’s sovereign rating from BBB- to BB+ or ‘junk’ status. “We have reviewed our ratings on Russian corporations in the commodity exports, telecommunications, and infrastructure and utility sectors,” it said in a statement. “We are consequently lowering our ratings on 14 companies and subsidiaries, affirming the ratings on 10 companies and subsidiaries, and revising several outlooks to negative.” Other corporations affected include Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Transneft, Novatek and MTS. kp.ru