Rising foreign stocks, growing oil prices support Russian shares

MOSCOW, May 5 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Wednesday on support from the foreign bourses and high oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.85% to 3,643.56 and the RTS increased 2.20% to 1,535.67.

“The Russian stock market has been deeply in the green zone since the first half of the trading day. The oil market once was the main source of positive momentum, as the oil prices rose close to U.S. $70 per barrel due to the expectations of higher demand during the summer season … Besides the positive external background helped the Russian market, while the other markets of the world recovered from yesterday’s fall,” Sergei Kaufman, analyst at investment company Finam, said.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, said that the U.S. stock market rebounded after a fall caused by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comment that the interest rates may have to rise sometime.

“Today the global stock floors and oil prices continued their upward movement. The investor mood improved as the U.S. treasury secretary later softened her comment,” Babin said.

The Brent oil price gained 1.336% to U.S. $69.80 per barrel as of 6.09 p.m. Moscow time.

Kaufman also said that the oil price growth supported the oil companies, this is why Lukoil gained 2.57% to 6,145 rubles, Rosneft went up by 0.95% to 542.25 rubles, and Gazprom Neft rose by 0.99% to 368.60 rubles.

Children goods retailer Detsky Mir gained 0.98% to 152.28 rubles despite a drop of the net profit in the first quarter of 2021 as the first quarters are traditionally bad for retailers, Kaufman said.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Wednesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.71	305.85	11.654
Gazprom	+1.37	237.00	8.165
Lukoil	+2.57	6145.00	7.713
Norilsk Nickel	+1.85	26686.00	5.829
VTB	-0.94	0.05418	4.000

(75.2567 rubles – U.S. $1)

End