Russian stocks close higher following foreign bourses

MOSCOW, Aug 19 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks grew on Wednesday as the local benchmarks followed the Western bourses, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.19% to 3,056.54 and the RTS firmed by 0.37% to 1,316.32.

“The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index stayed in the green zone together with the foreign stock bourses at the end of the day,” investment company Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The U.S. and European bourses’ mood was positive during the day. The U.S. market started the day with an increase of the three major indices, and the S&P 500 Index continued setting new highs as the American lawmakers signaled their readiness for compromise in approval of the latest economic stimulation package. In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index gained about 0.8% around the Russian market’s closing time following the U.S. trade, Kozhukhova said.

“The Russian indices kept up with the growth tendency, just like the European ones did,” Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

“Corporate news also added to the positive market mood. Sberbank and Mail.Ru Group announced investment of 12 billion rubles in their joint venture on a parity basis to develop new directions that emerged since the establishment. The event was not of a major significance for the shares of Sberbank, but the news propelled Mail.Ru into the leaders of the day.”

Mail.Ru Group gained 3.99% to 2,163 rubles.

Kochetkov also said that preferred shares of metals and mining group Mechel were loss leaders shedding 3.61% to 78.85 rubles as investors were dissatisfied with the financial results. The company’s net profit amounted to 47.1 billion rubles in April–June, but it was mainly due to the sale of the Elga coal deposit. Without the deal, the profit would have been smaller by 45.6 billion rubles, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.46	239.75	8.560
Yandex	+1.93	4590.00	8.203
Norilsk Nickel	-1.61	20464.00	5.499
Gazprom	-0.53	189.30	5.406
Polyus	+0.12	17969.50	3.950

(73.4321 rubles – U.S. $1)

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