Russian stocks close mixed on mixed environ, trade in Gazprom

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks closed mixed on Friday as the external background provided the market with mixed signals, while gas giant Gazprom supported the MOEX Russia Index, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.27% to 2,935.37 and the RTS decreased 0.05% to 1,438.45.

“The investor mood on the global stock bourses were unclear at the end of the week. The oil markets were suffered from a major negative impact likely caused by profit taking before the OPEC+ meeting next week. Other than that, investors were not eager to sell shares on the Western bourses while they were waiting for a U.S.–China trade agreement to be signed,” Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said that falling oil prices could have led to a serious contraction of the Russian indices, but the market chose to ignore that factor.

“We should note that the bears made a new unsuccessful attempt to drag the market below a support level of 2,920. But in the evening, the MOEX Russia Index managed to claw back the losses of the first half of the day completely and switch into the green zone, largely thanks to the growth in the shares of Gazprom,” Zvarich said.

Kozhukhova said that Gazprom’s shares started to grow on the news that the company could pay 50% of the adjusted net profit calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards in dividends starting from 2022.

Gazprom grew 1.39% to 257.54 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+1.39	257.54	13.593
Sberbank	-0.52	233.98	6.370
Lukoil	+0.29	6137.50	4.289
Surgutneftegas	+1.04	44.10	2.368
Norilsk Nickel	-0.73	17046.00	1.832

(64.1005 rubles – U.S. $1)

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