Geopolitical improvement pushes Russian stocks up

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Tuesday pushed up by the country’s improving relations with the West and even lower oil prices could not spoil the positive mood, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 2.73% to 1,787.23 and the RTS increased 4.64% to 862.44.

“(The increase) may be explained by a change in geopolitical realities, which create conditions for a softening of tensions between the West and Russia which both face common terroristic threats,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

An unexpected offering from Russia to restructure Ukraine’s debt is also a sign of a pragmatic external political dialogue, he said.

“Bulls were active and dragged the Russian market up because of a positive mood caused by Western partners’ rhetoric toward Russia at the G20 summit. Market participants also ignored low oil prices, while purchases were mostly done in highly liquid securities, and that may be a sign of interest from foreign investors,” Bogdan Zvarich, an analyst at investment company Finam, said.

The favorable background for the Russian stock market was also formed by growing major foreign bourses, also contributed to positive trading, Vasily Tanurkov, deputy head of investment company Veles Capital’s stock market analysis department, said.

The country’s second biggest bank VTB grew only 0.09% as the bank reported a net loss in January–September after a net profit in the same period a year ago.

Fertilizer producer PhosAgro outperformed the market and rose 3.93% as its net profit under IFRS soared to 31.551 billion rubles in January–September from 6.273 billion rubles in the same period of 2014.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+6.99	102.50	18.037
Gazprom	+4.04	142.75	8.706
Lukoil	+1.96	2524.50	3.113
VTB	+0.09	0.07595	2.559
Norilsk Nickel	+0.31	9364.00	2.239

(66.4607 rubles – U.S. $1)

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