Russian stocks edge up following US, European benchmarks

MOSCOW, Jun 3 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market managed to rise on Wednesday following Western stock exchanges’ optimism despite a downward correction on the crude market, analyst said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 1.24% to 2,831.08 and the RTS rose 1.88% to 1,301.88.

“The Russian stock market continued to grow on Wednesday despite a controversy external background. The upwards dynamics of Western floors, which demonstrated a confident growth on publication of better-than-expected data of business activity in services, encouraged purchases in Russian shares,” senior analyst at Promsvyazbank Bogdan Zvarich said.

European stock exchanges added up to 4% by the closing, and the major U.S. benchmarks Dow Jones and S&P500 grew 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively.

The growth of domestic stocks was restrained by a decline on the energy market resulting from disputes of the OPEC+ oil production cut deal participants on a possible delay of the alliance’s summit, devoted to the future of the deal, Zvarich also said.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that precious metals producers Polyus and Polymetal International were again among the biggest losers falling more than 6% as investors take profit. Polymetal also announced an issue of 14.2 billion rubles of new shares.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+4.48	221.5	31.549
Gazprom	+2.99	208	13.372
Lukoil	+2.77	5549.5	11.418
Norilsk Nickel	-1.78	21.824	8.309
Rosneft	+2.57	396.95	5.484

(68.9831 rubles – U.S. $1)

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