External background, oil price push Russian stocks higher

MOSCOW, Oct 25 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Tuesday supported by an intra-day increase of the oil price and the external background, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.73% to 1,977.19 and the RTS increased 0.85% to 1,002.26.

“The key Russian stock indices have demonstrated confident growth…The positive external background provided support to the indices,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said, adding that in particular it was supported by a 0.1% growth of the pan-European Stoxx 600 index.

But Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that an intra-day improvement of oil prices was the major reason for early-day purchases on the Russian market. As of 3.02 p.m. Moscow time, the Brent oil price grew to U.S. $51.80 per barrel.

But later in the day, the Brent oil price and fell 1.519% to $50.69 per barrel as of 6.13 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange. Natalya Samoilova, an investment department director at investment company Golden Hills–Capital AM, said that the oil prices were under pressure from expectations of the U.S. oil reserves data because analysts expect them to grow.

“The mood on the world markets was generally positive at the beginning of the day. The Asian indices grew, and the European stocks opened in the green zone. These facts supported Russian benchmarks,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said.

Oil companies grew, but in the second half of the day oil prices started to fall and the MICEX index lost some ground, Rogova added.

Nigmatullin said that preferred shares of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft grew 3.96% to 149,700 rubles on expectations of high dividends. The Economic Development Ministry has prepared a draft ruling, under which it may pay 58.91 billion rubles in dividends for January–September, up from 12.8 billion rubles paid in 2015.

Manzhos also said that pharmaceutical company Protek went up 6.25% to 96.90 rubles after the company’s board of directors recommended paying 7.5 rubles per share in dividends for January–September, which accounts for about 7.7% of the current price of the shares.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Tuesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.62	151.57	5.467
Mechel	-1.09	144.01	2.217
Gazprom	+0.19	135.30	2.095
Magnit	-0.91	10430.00	2.086
Moscow Exchange	+4.27	117.65	1.548

(62.2349 rubles – U.S. $1)

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