Russian stocks continue recovery on eased geopolitical tensions

MOSCOW, Jan 28 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market om Friday continued the recovery trend acquired during the previous trading session owing to a decrease in geopolitical risks and rising oil futures, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.95% to 3,488.60 and the RTS rose 0.53% to 1,407.04.

“Stabilized geopolitical background allowed investors to buy assets, which earlier fell in price significantly. The week ends on a positive note,” Vladislav Silayev of Alfa Capital said.

“The Russian stocks went up in price moderately mainly thanks to the blue chips of the stock market,” Yegor Zhilnikov of PSB Bank said. According to Zhilnikov, the petrochemical sector spearheaded the upward trend, and the financial sector rebounded further, while the shares of chemical companies outperformed the market average.

As Bogdan Zvarich of Banki.ru said, oil futures supported the shares of oil companies the most today, rising 2% to a critical level of U.S. $90 per barrel. Ordinary and preferred shares of Tatneft were the sector’s leader, adding about 3.4%.

At the same time, the rise of the Russian stocks was slightly constrained by the situation on foreign trading platforms, as the main European indices were losing within 2%, and the U.S. Dow Jones and S&P500 indices were down 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively, at the opening, Zvarich said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.03	256.9	47.708
Gazprom	+1.19	329.13	33.930
Yandex	-0.37	3392.6	9.426
Lukoil	+0.55	6849	9.407
TCS Group	+0.46	5425	6.266

(78.9470 rubles – U.S. $1)

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