Russian stocks climb on rising oil prices, shrug off Greek woes

MOSCOW, Jun 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Tuesday as oil prices rebounded, with investors shrugging off a possible Greek default, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.20% to 1,654.55 and RTS increased 1.28% to 939.93.

“Investors have put up with Greece’s default, which will almost inevitably happen today, and talks on Greece staying in the Eurozone on any terms are a slight relief…The Russian stock market is supported by a technical rebound of oil prices, which was also supported by delayed talks on the Iranian nuclear program,” Vasily Tanurkov, deputy CEO for stock market analysis at Veles Capital, said.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Tuesday confirmed the country will not redeem its 1.6 billion euro debt to the IMF, which de-facto means a default.

“But, judging by market reaction, the bulk of the negative event has been already priced in, so the reaction may not be as bad as some people expect. Some optimists even hope that Greece will at least extend the financial aid program,” Igor Kovalyov, analyst at Instaforex, said.

The Brent oil price rose 1.634% to U.S. $63.040 per barrel as of 6.16 p.m. Moscow time.

Oil major Lukoil and independent gas producer Novatek rose 2.57% to 2,469.90 rubles and 1.42% to 557.70 rubles, respectively. Late on Monday, Canada extended its sanctions against Russia and included state controlled gas giant Gazprom, oil major Gazprom Neft and oil pipeline monopoly Transneft in the list, so investors have possibly shifted their attention to private energy firms.

Biggest bank Sberbank was also among the growth leaders, with its common shares increasing 3.06% to 72.35 rubles and preferred shares rising 0.88% to 48.32 rubles, mainly in a technical rebound from its Monday lows.

Hydropower giant RusHydro also went up 3.65% to 0.5514 rubles even though the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders fell 4.5% on the year to 11.764 billion rubles in January–March, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.06	72.35	7.106
Gazprom	+1.57	145.85	3.826
Lukoil	+2.57	2469.90	3.003
VTB	+1.13	0.07900	2.120
Norilsk Nickel	-0.42	9500.00	1.709

(55.5240 rubles – U.S. $1)

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