Possible oil freeze meeting drives Russian stocks higher

MOSCOW, Mar 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose in thin trade before long holidays supported by the news that oil producing states may meet soon to discuss stabilization of oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.41% to 1,858.69 and the RTS increased 2.36% to 798.58.

“The Russian stock market rose sustainably during most of the trading session, oil and gas companies became the locomotive of growth,” Alexander Kostyukov, an analyst at Veles Capital, said.

“Today Nigeria’s Oil Minister (Emmanuel Kachikwu) said that the next meeting of representatives of oil producing countries will take place on March 20 in Russia. He also stressed that oil producing states’ target oil price stands at U.S. $50 per barrel.”

The Russian markets will be closed on Monday and Tuesday as the country celebrates the international women’s day on the 8th of March.

Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at Raiffeisen Bank, said that investor expectations of successful oil talks on March 20 supported Russian stocks in thin pre-holiday trade.

Gas giant Gazprom rose 3.11% to 144.5 rubles and oil major Rosneft increased 2.53% to 294.25 rubles, backed by the oil news.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.82	106.99	8.551
Gazprom	+3.11	144.50	6.972
Lukoil	+2.27	2700.00	3.578
Norilsk Nickel	+1.07	9190.00	2.178
Rosneft	+2.53	294.25	1.480

(73.6256 rubles – U.S. $1)

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