Russian stocks close mixed on sanctions woes, oil price rise

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Friday as hopes for an upcoming easing of U.S. anti-Russian sanctions have started to vanish, although a significant contraction of the MICEX index was prevented by higher oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.54% to 2,162.19 and the RTS increased 0.09% to 1,164.21.

“The Russian indices find no growth drivers. Though, in general, the external background is moderately positive. The fall of the Russian benchmark was largely based upon the fact that hopes that (U.S. President) Donald Trump will lift the sanctions from Russia will remain hopes. The U.S. is now hearing a bill, which will make the Congress to approve the president’s wish to lift the sanctions from Russia,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said.

The Brent oil price rose 1.522% to U.S. $56.49 per barrel as of 5.55 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Anton Kravchenko, a portfolio manager at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said that the oil prices rose after the International Energy Agency said that the OPEC members comply with their production quotas, and output contracted by 1 million barrels a day, and the world’s combined daily oil supply fell 1.5 million barrels.

The oil price increase resulted in the ruble growing by about 0.8% against the U.S. dollar and by about 1% against the euro, Kravchenko said.

Alexandra Sosnova, a leading analyst at Bank Rossiysky Capital, said that the U.S. dollar–denominated RTS index managed to gain some ground thanks to the ruble growth.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that rebalancing of the MSCI indices brought no optimism to shares of top bank Sberbank, which lost 1.95% to 165.50 rubles.

The management of aluminum giant UC RUSAL denied rumors that the company planned a secondary public offer at the London Exchange, Kochetkov said. Russian depositary receipts for shares of RUSAL remained flat at 321 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.95	165.50	9.906
Gazprom	-1.13	140.50	5.829
Detsky Mir	0.00	85.00	2.977
Lukoil	-0.64	3245.50	2.177
Magnit	+1.42	10002.00	1.571

(59.0235 rubles – U.S. $1)

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