Russian stocks close mixed on ruble’s fall, dividend expectations

MOSCOW, May 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with a mixed dynamics on Monday because of a ruble depreciation against foreign currencies, while dividend expectations provided an additional support to the MOEX Russia Index, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.79% to 2,611.07 and the RTS decreased 0.11% to 1,037.13.

“The Russian stock market did not show unified dynamics as it suffered from a weakness of the U.S. dollar segment due to the ruble’s depreciation. … The foreign stock floors showed a moderately optimistic sentiment that was secured by hopes for successful negotiations regarding an increase of the U.S. state debt threshold. It looks like the decision will be made close to the critical date as usual,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

Besides the ruble’s fall, a flow of optimistic corporate news supported the MOEX Russia Index, she said.

The foreign markets were in the green zone on Monday, with the European markets rising after the European Commission’s improvement of its forecast for growth of the euro zone's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 to 1.1% from 0.9%. Oil prices were also edging up slightly while waiting for new macroeconomic signals, and the futures for the U.S. stock indices grew as the market expected negotiations over the U.S. state debt to continue on Tuesday, Kozhukhova said.

“A weak ruble provided a general support, while the ruble and dividend expectations propelled the shares of Lukoil and Surgutneftegas,” Otkritie Research leading analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

Lukoil gained 3.34% to 4,980 rubles, while the ordinary and preferred shares of Surgutneftegas increased by 4.70% to 25.06 rubles and 5.78% to 36.58 rubles, respectively.

Freedom Finance Global’s analyst Vladimir Chernov said that the securities of Internet company VK rose by 4.40% to 507.60 rubles in reaction to the company’s financial report for January–March under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Its revenue increased by 39.5% on the year to 27.3 billion rubles in the period, with income from online advertising jumping by 67% to 16.3 billion rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.81	231.15	9.479
Lukoil	+3.34	4980.00	7.129
Sollers	+40.06	867.00	6.419
Gazprom	-0.03	173.90	3.860
MTS	+2.93	284.50	2.152

(77.2041 rubles – U.S. $1)

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