Russian stocks close mixed as gold firms rise, ruble falls

MOSCOW, Jan 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Friday as rising gold producers and Sberbank supported the MOEX Russia Index, while the falling ruble dragged the RTS index down, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.64% to 2,199.94 and the RTS decreased 0.55% to 1,010.40.

“The Russian market resumed growth from the first half of the day triggered by technical factors and by the positive background, which has an influence on several important securities,” Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Research, said.

Inflation statistics in Europe reassured investors, and the continuous contraction of yields on the bonds allowed the European indices to finish the week higher. The oil prices switched to the green zone as demand for oil in China may rise higher than expected because of the alternate route to Europe for Russian oil, Kochetkov said.

China bought 32 tonnes of gold in November 2022, 30 tonnes in December 2022, and may ramp up purchases to 100 tonnes in the first two weeks of January. China wants to convert some of its reserves into gold, and Russian companies account for some of the procurements. As a result, Polymetal International gained 3.43% to 400.60 rubles, while Polyus rose by 1.71% to 8,070 rubles, he said.

“The MOEX Russia Index managed to finish Friday’s trading in the green zone thanks to the growth of the shares of gold producers, Gazprom, and Sberbank,” Promsvyazbank senior analyst Alexei Golovinov said, adding that dividend expectations allowed Sberbank to gain 1.65% to 151.77 rubles.

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova and Dmitry Postolenko, head of managing company Pervaya’s department for fixed income securities management, said that the RTS Index’ decrease was caused by the ruble’s fall against the U.S. dollar and the euro.

“Dynamics of the Russian stock market were not unified at the end of the main trading session on Friday because of a downward turn in the ruble, purchases in some issuers, and an unclear background,” Kozhukhova said.

She also said that the securities of real estate developer Etalon Group rose by 2.54% to 52.50 rubles as the company’s commissioning of housing soared by 74% on the year to an absolute record of 735,000 square meters in 2022.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.65	151.77	12.571
Pharmsynthez	+10.25	6.505	2.530
Polyus	+1.71	8070.00	2.149
Gazprom	+0.51	165.00	1.826
Magnit	-0.30	4624.00	1.542

(67.7775 rubles – U.S. $1)

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