Russian stock market rises on favorable global background

MOSCOW, Oct 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Monday thanks to the improved global background and the completion of partial military mobilization in Moscow, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 3.17% to 2,012.85 and the RTS increased 3.75% to 1,027.83.

“The Russian stock market accelerated on Monday by the end of trading on support from improved global sentiment as well as news about the completion of partial mobilization in Moscow,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Freedom Finance Global’s Senior Analyst Natalya Milchakova said that exchange players' optimism was mainly caused by a recovery in commodity prices and strong operating results of a number of large Russian companies in July–September.

The price of Brent crude oil rose by 0.62% to U.S. $92.2 per barrel. The strikes at the oil refineries in France provided some positive dynamics for the energy prices. Gold rose by 1.16% to $1668.10 per troy ounce.

The growth leaders of the session included Samolet with a 9.69% rise, Etalon with 7.01%, MMK with 6.82%, NLMK with 5.7%, Raspadskaya with 5.97% and Ozon with 5.64%.

NLMK followed Severstal with strong operating results in July–September, which showed a 1% increase in steel production on the year and a 5% increase in steel product sales, thanks to a sell-off in inventories and recovering demand in Russia and Turkey.

X5 Retail Group reported strong operating results, but fell 0.56% by the end of the session as part of a correction after the previous days' gains.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+4.01	112.1	8.038
Gazprom	+1.82	162.5	3.979
Rosneft	+4.37	312.65	2.014
Lukoil	+1.76	4212	2.005
Norilsk Nickel	+4.03	13150	1.221

(63.0558 rubles – U.S. $1)

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