Russian stocks edge up due to technical factors, lack of drivers

MOSCOW, Apr 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market rose on Monday in thin Easter volumes and a lack of major negative drivers, analysts said.

The MICEX grew 1.38% to 1.942.72 and the RTS rose 1.97% to 1,094.27.

“The MICEX rebounded from 1,900… to make a consolidation attempt (at a higher level). Many European stock exchanges are closed for the Easter holidays and the Brent oil price remains flat at $55-56 per barrel, so it is difficult to correlate the upward trend on the Russian market with any external triggers,” Anastasia Sosnova, senior analyst at Bank Rossiysky Capital, said.

“In our opinion, technical factors are determinant on the domestic market at the moment.”

Investor optimism was also supported by optimistic statements by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on the outlooks of the country’s economy and statistics showing a 0.8% rise in Russia’s industrial output.

“Medvedev stated at a meeting with deputy prime ministers that the major government’s achievement last year was that Russia’s economic contraction almost stopped,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Energy grid operator Russian Grids, the country’s biggest lender Sberbank and the Moscow Exchange were among market leaders rising 3.73% to 0.915 rubles, 3.18% to 153.99 rubles and 3.18% to 107.67 rubles, respectively.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.18%	153.99	7.312
Gazprom	+0.69%	123.70	2.672
FGC UES	+2.44%	0.181	0.910
Moscow Exchange	+3.18%	107.67	0.882
ALROSA	+2.39%	89.80	0.856

(56.2945 rubles – U.S. $1)

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