Russian stocks close mixed amid stronger ruble, oil price growth

MOSCOW, Jun 10 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday, with the RTS index backed by a stronger ruble and increased oil prices and the MICEX showing a slight reduction, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.66% to 1,653.09 and the RTS increased 1.64% to 958.97.

“Strengthening of the ruble combined with increased oil prices supported the RTS index, while the MICEX traded with a token minus,” InstaForex analyst Anton Fomin said.

The ruble was supported by an increase in oil futures, which jumped more than 5% over the two previous days amid upcoming expiration of monthly futures contracts and OPEC’s decision to keep its oil production quota at 30 million barrels per day, Finam analyst Anton Soroko said.

The oil prices reached close to U.S. $66 per barrel by the end of the trading day on reports that U.S. oil reserves fell by 6.8 million barrels, Veles Capital analysts said.

Oil major Lukoil fell 2.10% on poor financial results for January–March, with the company’s U.S. GAAP net profit falling 60% to U.S. $690 million.

Multi-industry holding AFK Sistema, whose net profit tripled to 32.1 billion rubles in January–March, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards, fell 0.78% as trading closed.

Power utility Mosenergo dropped 1.04% after the company said its shareholders approved paying a total of 396.1 million rubles in dividends for 2014, down from 1.58 billion rubles paid for 2013.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.85	71.51	6.530
Gazprom	-0.39	145.60	4.093
VTB	-1.50	0.08052	2.980
Lukoil	-2.10	2551.30	2.799
Norilsk Nickel	-1.09	9595.00	1.490

(55.9100 rubles – U.S. $1)

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