Russian stocks close mixed amid stable oil, stronger ruble

MOSCOW, May 5 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday amid oil prices rising on Canada’s fires and a Libyan conflict, a stronger ruble and decreased investor activity ahead of upcoming holidays, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.99% to 1,906.48 and the RTS increased 0.43% to 916.53.

“The foreign currency-denominated RTS index managed to moderately increase supported by a strengthening ruble. At the same time, the ruble-denominated MICEX has strongly settled in the negative zone,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

The domestic market has reached a temporary balance replacing a sharp downward move after a 4-day break in trading, Manzhos said.

“The MICEX contraction is mostly caused by investors’ unwillingness to risk, as the foreign background slightly improved today. In particular, the U.S. oil output data released on Wednesday, information about fires in Canada, which led to disruptions of supplies, as well as reports about escalation of the situation in Libya provoked resumption of black gold quotations growth,” Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said.

Investor activity is gradually decreasing ahead of upcoming long holidays, Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex analytical department, said.

Uncut diamond mining giant ALROSA fell 1.29% on reports that its supervisory board recommended paying 15.393 billion rubles, or around 50% of its net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards, in dividends for 2015.

Power producer Enel Russia increased 2.16% despite reporting a 68.8% decrease in its January–March net profit calculated under Russian Accounting Standards.

Power utility Irkutskenergo closed 2.56% lower after its board of directors recommended paying 0.53 rubles per share, or a total of 2.53 billion rubles, in dividends for 2015.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.03	120.92	6.802
Gazprom	-1.17	160.50	4.860
Norilsk Nickel	-3.20	8809.00	2.804
Lukoil	-2.54	2630.00	2.158
Magnit	+1.61	9151.00	2.004

(66.1718 rubles – U.S. $1)

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