Russian stocks edge up as China softens monetary policy

MOSCOW, Feb 17 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks edged up on Monday supported by China’s easing of monetary policy, while the U.S. market was on holidays and the oil prices stayed flat, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.43% to 3,110.06 and the RTS increased 0.54% to 1,543.25.

“Investors focused on Asia and Europe due to the holidays and the absence of trade in the U.S. The Chinese indices closed on a strongly positive note, and the Shanghai Composite grew 2.28% as the People’s Bank of China reduced the medium-term lending facility rate to 3.15% from 3.25%,” Yaroslav Kabakov, director for strategy at investment company Finam, said.

This points to monetary policy softening after a reduction of the rate on 7-day repo operations earlier in February. Investors also expect it to reduce the key rate on February 20, Kabakov said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Market, said that dynamics of oil prices did not add any noticeable momentum to Russian stocks.

“The Brent oil price stabilized above U.S. $57.3 per barrel today. It looks like there will be no emergency meeting and the issue about an additional reduction of oil output by 600,000 barrels suggested by the OPEC+ technical committee will be suspended at least until the March meeting. Baker Hughes data showed that the number of drilling rigs rose by 2 in the week,” Dmitry Bedenkov, head of the research department of investment company Russ-Invest, said.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the Russian market could have grown even higher, but sales in shares of internet giant Yandex, which fell 0.91% to 2,983.60 rubles in reaction to a financial report published in the previous week, prevented that.

Precious metals producers Polyus and Polymetal also lost 1.01% to 7,922 rubles and 0.37% to 1,048.60 rubles, respectively, which has already become a tradition when concerns around the coronavirus outbreak ease, Kochetkov said.

Shares of Russian power producers outperformed the market mainly due to discussions about state financing for the upgrade of old power plants, Kochetkov said. Rosseti, Enel Russia, Wholesale Generating Company-2, and Territorial Generating Company-2 gained 0.96%, 1.57%, 1.52%, and 39.85%, respectively.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.15	251.36	6.638
Gazprom	+0.54	233.75	4.794
Novatek	+3.86	1092.00	3.724
Lukoil	+0.19	6463.00	2.263
Norilsk Nickel	+1.21	21790.00	2.091

(63.4536 rubles – U.S. $1)

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