Russian stocks close mixed as ruble rises vs US dollar

MOSCOW, Mar 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday on moderately positive news flow as the significant increase of the ruble’s exchange rate against the U.S. dollar supported the RTS, but prevented the MICEX from growing, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.09% to 2,021.88 and the RTS increased 1.10% to 1,137.26.

The RTS index outperformed the MICEX index as the ruble grew about 1% against the U.S. dollar during the day. “The reasons for optimism of market participants were the growth of the oil price…and a decrease of concerns over the capability of U.S. President Donald Trump to implement his U.S. economy stimulation policy that he promised during the elections,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

The Brent oil price went up 0.72% to U.S. $52.80 per barrel as of 6:07 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange. The ruble rose 69 kopecks to 55.92 against the U.S. dollar, the highest point since July 2015.

“The key explanation of these dynamics (of the ruble) lies within an uncharacteristic combination of external and internal factors for Russia. The central bank’s key rate is at a rather high level, but ruble-denominated inflation is at a record low. This leads to an inflow of capital to the country, and implementation of carry trade operations by participants of the market only helps the inflow,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said.

Kirsanova also said that the U.S. trade floors were able to return to the green zone as analysts and experts forecasted that Trump, after a failure to void the Affordable Care Act in the Congress, will be more successful in discussion of changes in the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. This will allow the Trump administration to find new sources of revenue for the budget and cut the tax burden on business. The mood of U.S. bourses helped the Russian market, she said.

Yevgeny Loktyukhov, head of Promsvyazbank’s research department, said that the market is still uncertain whether oil prices will grow further, and the mood at world bourses does not improve confidence of investors. This prevented the MICEX from growing to its 200-day average point mark, he said.

“Despite a lack of noticeable negative signals at the world’s trading floors, there was also no optimism there. The background today looked neutral, which did not result in growth of the MICEX after the oil segment had lost its bullish momentum,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

Loktyukhov said that shares of aluminum giant UC RUSAL rose 3.31% in reaction to a rally of world prices for aluminum, which climbed above the March 2015 high point.

Kirsanova said that shares of power companies rose as volatility in papers was spurred by discussions of dividends policy of the companies by the government. Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES) grew 5.93%, Center and Volga Interregional Distribution Grid Company (Center and Volga IDGC) gained 4.92%, and Center IDGC rose 2.21%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.17	163.50	3.982
Gazprom	-0.25	128.49	3.701
Rosneft	+2.02	328.70	2.453
Lukoil	-2.58	2982.00	2.346
FGC UES	+5.93	0.1857	1.364

(57.0241 rubles – U.S. $1)

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