Oil price surge above $50 pushes Russian stocks higher

MOSCOW, May 26 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Thursday, supported by oil prices rising to 7-month highs, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.82% to 1,914.31 and the RTS increased 1.19% to 918.79.

“Oil prices triggered growth of Russian indices today. Oil price surged to $50.73 per barrel, its highest level in seven months,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club, said.

According to Dominion Fx analyst Yury Vinter, oil prices rose on U.S. statistics of oil reserves, which fell last week, and expectations that OPEC countries will consider measures to cut oil production at a meeting on June 2.

Veles Capital analyst Alexander Kostyukov said, “Oil price fell to $49.5 fell by the end of the Russian stock market trading session and limited growth of Russian stocks.”

Sberbank rose 3.35% to 132.16 rubles as the bank published strong financial results on Wednesday, and was also supported by a stronger ruble, Kostyukov said.

Gas giant Gazprom grew 1.58% to 148.87 rubles and oil major Lukoil rose 1.04% to 2,678 rubles on high oil prices, the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.35	132.16	16.358
Gazprom	+1.58	148.87	5.131
Lukoil	+1.04	2678.00	3.199
Rosneft	+0.68	320.15	1.859
Magnit	+0.67	9201.00	1.552

(65.8949 rubles – U.S. $1)

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