Higher divs of state cos, Yukos crt ruling support Russian market

MOSCOW, Apr 20 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Wednesday as blue chips were mainly backed by a decision to raise dividend payouts of state companies to at least 50% of a net profit for 2015, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.56% to 1,960.18 and the RTS increased 1.78% to 943.16.

“Gazprom was among growth leaders again. And it is not surprising, because the stock still have a room for growth after the ruble devaluation and also thanks to a recent decision to increase dividend payouts to 50% of an IFRS profit,” Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Under a recent ruling, state companies must pay at least 50% of a net profit in dividends for 2015. A company should take the highest figure of its net profit – under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) or under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Aside from Gazprom, other blue chips, supported by the dividend decision, included oil major Rosneft, uncut diamond mining giant ALROSA, Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES), and Russian Grids, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said. ALROSA went up 2.80%, Russian Grids rose 1.91% and FGC UES grew 1.16%.

Investors also viewed as positive news a decision of The Hague District Court to recognize invalid a lower court ruling to award the shareholders of defunct Russian oil company Yukos U.S. $50 billion in compensation from the Russian government, Manzhos also said.

The increase of the dollar-denominated RTS was sped up by a ruble rise to about 65.5 against the U.S. dollar by the closing bell.

Veles Capital said in a research note that some metals stocks went up on news that Turkey ceased an antidumping investigation into exporters of hot-rolled products from seven countries, including Russia, and will not impose any duties.

Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) rose 4.41%, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) increased 1.66% and steel producer Severstal rose 2.42%. The latter was also supported by an agreement with truck maker Kamaz on supplies of rolled metal products of new types, Manzhos said. Kamaz gained 0.41%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+3.85	161.95	15.625
Sberbank	+1.85	123.75	12.741
Lukoil	+1.94	2870.00	4.268
Rosneft	+3.30	322.05	3.293
Norilsk Nickel	+0.19	9259.00	3.124

(65.6474 rubles – U.S. $1)

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