Russian stocks close mixed on Brent, ruble rise, cbank meeting Fri

MOSCOW, Mar 12 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Friday, as the U.S. dollar-denominated RTS rose as the ruble strengthened against the U.S. dollar, while the MICEX failed to rebound ahead of a central bank’s Friday meeting where the key rate will be discussed, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.41% to 1,664.70 and the RTS increased 1.33% to 859.26.

“The dynamics of oil futures, which swung to growth after the publication of neutral data on U.S. oil reserves yesterday, remained the key factor which influenced the markets during the day,” Anton Soroko, analyst at Finam, said.

He also said investors took a wait-and-see attitude ahead of the central bank meeting where it is expected to cut the key rate, Soroko said explaining expectations by slowing inflation and a stable ruble.

The growth of the Russian stock market was also limited by a fall of some European indices, including the DAX and the CAC40, the analyst said.

The ruble rise, which supported the RTS, was backed by the Brent price rebound and the fact that a new tax period will start soon boosting demand for the national currency, Ivan Kopeykin, BKS Express analyst, said.

The market is likely to be volatile on Friday in anticipation of the central bank’s decision. Moreover, statistics on the number of U.S. drilling rigs to be published on Friday may also increase volatility of Russian stocks, Veles Capital’s analysts said in a research note.

Russian exporter ALROSA rose 2.56% to 80,000 rubles after its President Ilya Ryashchin had said that the economic crisis will not influence volumes of the company’s sales, Vitaly Manzhos, analyst at Nord-Capital, said.

Dixy rose 2.96% to 463.3 rubles as the company announced a 29.6% rise in revenues to 40.6 billion rubles for January–February, the analyst said.

Lenta rose 8.71% to 412.0 rubles as the company’s 2014 net profit rose 27.0% to 9.1 billion rubles, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.16	70.79	5.865
Gazprom	-0.88	144.70	3.888
Lukoil	+0.26	2733.90	2.443
Norilsk Nickel	+1.34	10730.00	2.276
VTB	+1.93	0.06450	1.576

(62.6797 rubles – U.S. $1)

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