Russian stocks close higher on rising oil, VSMPO-Avisma

MOSCOW, Jun 30 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Wednesday as the national market received support from growing oil prices, while Rio Tinto’s suspension of titanium production helped VSMPO-Avisma to increase, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.35% to 3,841.85 and the RTS increased 0.84% to 1,653.78.

“The ruble benchmark closed above Tuesday’s closing thanks to the positive external background and a renewed increase of oil prices,” Mikhail Shulgin, head of Otkritie Broker’s global research department, said.

 Alexander Osin, head of Freedom Finance’s department for trade operations on the Russian stock market, said that the MOEX Russia Index grew thanks to the oil prices and futures for the U.S. stock indices.

“Taking into account the decisions of OPEC over the past few years, we think that the July session of the cartel will continue the policy aimed at restricting oil production,” he said.

But there are factors that may lead to higher production quotas, including a lower probability of the Iranian oil coming to the market, recovery of demand, and a possible fast U.S. debt burden growth in the next few years. “Taking that into account and due to the lack of strong macroeconomic drivers, the (Russian) market is actively reacting to corporate events,” Osin said.

Titanium giant VSMPO-Avisma rose by 1.81% to 29,300 rubles as its transnational competitor Rio Tinto had to suspend operations of its titanium dioxide subsidiary Richards Bay Minerals in South Africa due to social instability in the region, he said.

Shulgin also said that fertilizer producer Acron lost 0.24% to 5,932 rubles in spite of the news that it started an upgrade of ammonia production to raise capacity by 2,300 tonnes per day from 1,800 tonnes.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+1.64	281.34	16.330
Sberbank	-0.13	305.69	9.057
Rosneft	+3.25	571.00	8.100
Lukoil	+1.08	6757.00	7.354
Norilsk Nickel	+0.23	24758.00	6.272

(72.3723 rubles – U.S. $1)

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