Rising Brent, ruble, global trading floors support Russian stocks

MOSCOW, Mar 1 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Tuesday as all factors influencing the price of local assets – oil, the ruble, global stocks – grew, analysts said.

The MICEX firmed 0.22% to 1,844.17 and the RTS increased 2.28% to 786.36.

Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said that external conditions were favorable, and oil spiked to U.S. $37 per barrel at one moment.

Vasily Tanurkov, an expert at Veles Capital, said that global stock and raw material markets rose after the Chinese central bank decreased the banks' reserve requirement ratio, and were also supported by European production statistics.

The dollar-denominated RTS was sped up by the ruble strengthening.

Flagship air carrier Aeroflot surged 7.16% to 61.19 rubles after publishing a strong report under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for 2015, Kovalyov said.

The growing ruble put non-oil exporters under pressure: fertilizer producer Acron fell 3.05% to 3,655 rubles and steel producers Severstal went down 1.43% to 621 rubles.

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), the cargo traffic of which decreased 6% in January, fell 2.04% to 3.840 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.18	108.26	12.379
Gazprom	+0.42	142.00	4.292
Lukoil	+0.48	2699.00	2.266
Norilsk Nickel	-0.40	9105.00	1.666
VTB	-1.63	0.0722	1.400

(75.8994 rubles – U.S. $1)

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