Growth of Western bourses, oil prices push Russian stocks up

MOSCOW, May 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Friday as the local bourse was supported by the upward movement on Western floors, which happened due to a positive economic statistics, and by the increase of oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.67% to 3,660.48 and the RTS increased 0.69% to 1,569.55.

“The Russian stock indices switched into the green zone as they received support from improvements in the external background,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

European investors were inspired by statistics on business activity in services sectors of Germany, the U.K., and eurozone in May, which outperformed expectations and continued their recovery, Kozhukhova said.

“The price of the Brent oil gained around 2.2% on expectations of the world’s economic growth in recovery after noticeable contractions in the previous sessions," Vladimir Lyashchuk, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said adding that as a result, the MOEX Russia Index and the ruble grew.

Dynamics of oil prices resulted in purchases in shares of Russian oil and gas companies, so Lukoil rose by 2% to 5,825.50 rubles, Rosneft by 1.84% to 526.85 rubles, and Novatek by 2.46% to 1,408.80 rubles, Lyashchuk said.

Kozhukhova also said that preferred shares of metals and mining group Mechel grew by 2.40% as investors were still pricing in the company’s financial and operating results for January–March that it published on Thursday.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Friday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.62	301.54	14.742
Gazprom	-0.29	258.40	6.891
Lukoil	+2.00	5825.50	6.141
Norilsk Nickel	-0.30	27074.00	4.569
Polymetal	-0.04	1785.10	4.420

(73.6007 rubles – U.S. $1)

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