Hope of better US-Russia relations with Trump push stocks higher

MOSCOW, Nov 10 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rallied on Thursday on local and foreign investors’ hope that the relations of the country with the U.S. will improve after Donald Trump’s victory, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.61% to 2,044.03 and the RTS increased 0.35% to 993.84.

“Russian stocks continued their rally on Thursday after the announcement of results of the U.S. presidential elections…Expectations that Trump will abolish anti-Russian economic sanctions became the key reason for such an overwhelmingly positive mood of the market,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said that expectations of launches of new infrastructural projects in the U.S. also supported hope for improvement of the world economy.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that bellwethers of the local market – top lender Sberbank and gas giant Gazprom – grew by 1.54% and 1.22%, respectively, as they are usually the first receivers of funds from foreign investors after changes of relations toward Russian assets.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that common and preferred shares of metals and mining group Mechel, as well as shares of coal producer Raspadskaya surged 8.26%, 4.83%, and 1.65%, respectively, due to continuous growth of a spot price for coking coal, which today increased above $300 per tonne for the first time since 2011.

Russian depositary receipts of aluminum giant UC RUSAL went up 6.35% following a significant growth of prices of the company’s shares on the Hong Kong Exchange. Asian investors and speculators expected the company to publish strong results for July–September, Manzhos said.

But preferred shares of oil company Surgutneftegas lost 0.96% under the pressure from a falling ruble as the company’s dividends largely depend on the ruble rate at the end of the year, Manzhos added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.54	153.36	15.450
Gazprom	+1.22	147.40	15.389
Norilsk Nickel	+4.75	10046.00	5.599
Lukoil	+2.83	3145.00	4.353
Magnit	+2.06	9850.00	3.459

(63.8928 rubles – U.S. $1)

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