Russian stocks edge up amid positive news from St Pete forum

MOSCOW, Jun 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market opened with a sharp gap down, but then bounced back to close higher on Friday, analysts said.

The MICEX grew 0.65% to 1,881.87 and the RTS rose 0.04% to 1,046.02.

“The MICEX benchmark opened lower today, but it was supported by a plenty of news from the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and closed with a slight rise,” Veles Capital analyst Dmitry Zatravkin said.

The expert added that the situation on the global floors was positive with the main U.S. and European stock exchanges trading in the green territory.

Finam analyst Bogdan Zvarich said that the Russian market disregarded a sharp fall in the Brent oil price which consolidated around the $50 per barrel mark during the day.

Metals and mining group Mechel added 0.05% to 107.7 rubles on the news that its creditors VTB Bank and Sberbank supported an idea of dividend payments for 2016.

Multi-industry holding Sistema jumped 8.47% to 13.505 rubles after Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said his company does not rule out making a peaceful settlement with Sistema in a case over oil company Bashneft.

State-controlled power utility Rosseti and the country’s biggest lender Sberbank were also among the top gainers rising 4.92% to 0.7617 rubles and 2.71% to 157.14 rubles, respectively.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.71%	157.14	10.113
Gazprom	+1.43%	119.69	4.515
Lukoil	+1.26%	2,734.00	2.497
Rosneft	-0.15%	301.00	1.887
Norilsk Nickel	+0.49%	7,829.00	1.808

(56.5373 rubles – U.S. $1)

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