Russian stock market grow backed by oil rising to over $45/bbl

MOSCOW, Apr 22 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Friday on the background of rising oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.88% to 1,967.26 and the RTS increased 0.46% to 931.46.

“The optimism was caused by oil price dynamics in the second half of the day. Brent price broke through the level of U.S. $45 per barrel again,” Andrei Dirgin, head of the analytical department at Alfa-Forex, said.

Otkritie Broker’s analyst Oksana Lukichyova said that the oil quotations’ upward trend was caused by an oil workers’ strike in Kuwait, oil pipeline explosions in Nigeria and an earthquake in Ecuador this week.

Preferred shares of state-controlled power utility Russian Grids jumped 5.07% as the company reported an 81.6 billion ruble net profit in 2015 against a 24.3 billion ruble net loss in 2014, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Metals giant Norilsk Nickel rose 4.08% on recent news that the board of directors approved selling a quasi-treasury stake in the company to Crispian Investments Limited for $158 million Manzhos said.

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) increased 2.11% still supported by Turkey’s decision to stop an anti-dumping investigation into imports of hot rolled steel earlier this week, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.75	121.25	12.357
Norilsk Nickel	+4.08	9750.00	6.149
Gazprom	-0.37	161.20	5.747
Rosgosstrakh	0.00	5.67	3.400
Lukoil	0.00	2890.00	2.573

(65.0254 rubles – U.S. $1)

End