High oil price, strong ruble push Russian stocks higher

MOSCOW, Oct 9 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks jumped on Friday again propelled by a high oil price and a strong ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 2.32% to 1,728.44 and RTS increased 3.45% to 885.96.

The market has broken through a 1,700 point mark for the first time since September 18, and has grown almost 7% in the week for the first time since April thanks to the Brent oil price, which surged 10.6% in the week, Sofya Kirsanova, analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said.

“The Russian stock market will become the main beneficiary of the oil price rebound as the MICEX index consists of oil companies’ shares by more than 50%. Investors even decided to not react on the government’s recent discussion on changing taxation for the oil industry,” Kirsanova said.

Significant support also came from investor enthusiasm on the news that the U.S. will keep its soft monetary policy until the end of the year, which prompted Russia-dedicated funds to register a net inflow of $100.5 million in the week between October 1 and Wednesday after 17 consecutive weeks of outflows, she added.

“We have once again registered an RTS index increase outrunning (the MICEX) under the influence of continued ruble’s strengthening against the U.S. dollar,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Russia’s main blue chips were among the growth leaders with common shares of oil companies Rosneft, Lukoil and Tatneft and preferred shares of oil company Surgutneftegas rising 5.53%, 4.63%, 3.03% and 2.14%, respectively.

But shares of fertilizer makers PhosAgro and Acron fell 4.67% and 5.22% as President Vladimir Putin said that Russia may impose export duties on apatite concentrate to increase tax collection.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.20	85.77	17.406
Gazprom	+2.87	143.81	9.264
Lukoil	+4.63	2400.10	8.283
Norilsk Nickel	+4.49	9560.00	5.679
Rosneft	+5.53	267.00	2.773

(62.2942 rubles – U.S. $1)

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