Russian stocks close mixed on Brent rise, ruble weakening

MOSCOW, Apr 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday consolidating ahead of public holidays and being supported by the Brent oil price rise and pressed by the ruble weakening, while the central bank’s cut of the key rate to 12.5% and the results of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting met investors’ expectations, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.04% to 1,688.34 and the RTS decreased 0.24% to 1,029.31.

“The last trading day of the week has been peaceful, even despite the fact that today we saw a meeting of the central bank on monetary policy. The decision to reduce the key rate by 150 basis points quite met expectations of the market and that is why it did not cause a storm of emotions among players,” Natalia Samoilova, head of analytical department of Golden Hills-Kapital, said.

The U.S. dollar-denominated RTS index was put under pressure by some ruble weakening to about 52 against the dollar as of 4.20 p.m. Moscow time triggered by the cut, according to Anton Fomin, an analyst at InstaForex.

At the same time, the fall of the RTS index was limited by Brent price upward dynamics of above U.S. $65.5 per barrel, Fomin said.

The results of the Wednesday meeting of the Fed also brought no surprises for the Russian stock market, as the uncertainty concerning terms of U.S. rates increase remained, analysts of Veles Capital said in a research note.

Volumes of trade on the Russian stock market shrank ahead of upcoming May Day 4-day holidays, analysts said.

Russian oil and gas company Surgutneftegas rose 5.19% after reporting a 6.6% increase in net profit to 140.3 billion rubles in January–March, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Norilsk Nickel increased 0.92% as its RAS net profit more than quadrupled to 55.088 billion rubles in January–March.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.26	76.90	8.002
Gazprom	+0.66	153.500	4.390
VTB	+3.77	0.06550	2.192
Lukoil	+1.83	2645.60	2.133
Magnit	-1.55	11280.00	1.907

(51.7029 rubles – U.S. $1)

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