Russian stocks edge up as general background, oil prices improve

MOSCOW, Dec 7 (PRIME) -- The Russian market demonstrated a modest rise on Tuesday following global optimism and growth of crude prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 1.66% to 3,873.20 and the RTS increased 1.55% to 1,647.14.

“The MOEX Russia and the RTS indices tried to develop growth at the end of the trading session, but did not look confident… Optimism prevailed on global stock exchanges, and the local benchmarks managed to follow the trend, although the dynamics were restrained,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

PSB Bank senior analyst Yegor Zhilnikov said that Russian stocks were supported by crude prices with the Brent oil price rebounding to U.S. $75 per barrel so energy shares were among the best performers.

Kozhukhova said that aluminum producer UC RUSAL jumped by 5.83% on a rise of aluminum prices and ahead of an extraordinary meeting of the shareholders that is to consider dividends for January–September.

TCS Group which lost 2.13% and the entire banking sector were among the losers in light of risks of new sanctions against Russia’s financial system.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.16	308	41.408
Gazprom	+1.08	342.6	21.138
Lukoil	+1.17	6727.5	13.100
TCS Group	-2.13	6536.8	5.896
Rosneft	+2.36	589.15	4.180

(73.6694 rubles – U.S. $1)

End