Rebound in oil price drags Russian stocks higher

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Tuesday supported by a higher oil price, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.86% to 1,763.38 and the RTS increased 1.79% to 769.64.

“The market demonstrated an upward dynamics, which was supported by an increase of oil prices,” Bogdan Zvarich, an analyst at investment holding Finam, said.

The Brent oil price surged 2.373% to U.S. $37.51 per barrel as of 6.00 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“Despite the ruble fall to new lows this year, main Russian stock indices grew following shares of commodity companies,” Yevgenia Abramovich, a head of department for analysis of currency risks at local unit of brokerage house Dukascopy Bank SA, said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the fall of the ruble compensated low oil prices and oil companies Rosneft and Surgutneftegas grew 3.66% and 2.60% to 255 rubles and 34.55 rubles, respectively.

The ruble’s fall also helped Russian exporters, including gold and silver producer Polymetal International, titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma and steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) to grow 5.42%, 2.69%, and 2.82% to 622 rubles, 12,210 rubles and 62.77 rubles, respectively, Kochetkov said.

But the ruble’s fall hurt prices of mobile operators MTS and MegaFon, which rose only by 0.59% and 0.82% to 211.50 rubles and 856 rubles, as their revenues are denominated in rubles, he added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.62	101.82	7.344
Gazprom	+1.87	137.49	2.932
Norilsk Nickel	-1.72	9189.00	1.514
Novorossiysk Grain Plant	+1.78	458.00	1.502
Lukoil	+1.89	2353.60	1.455

(70.7865 rubles – U.S. $1)

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