Russian stocks edge up on corporate stories, trade in Europe

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks edged up on Tuesday as investors reacted to positive corporate stories and to favorable dynamics of European bourses, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.15% to 3,793.69 and the RTS increased 0.11% to 1,637.70.

“Uncertainty of the Asian markets bypassed the Russian indices, … and the indices in Europe were also in the green zone. Corporate news were far and few between, but they were also positive,” Otkritie Broker’s lead analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

Veles capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the external background sent mixed signals for the Russian market during the day as the U.S. stock market showed mixed dynamics, with the hi-tech sector underperforming today as the Chinese state media criticized video games, instilling a fear of a tougher regulation into investors. The Euro Stoxx 50 index was rising about 0.1% at the end of Russia’s trade session, while the oil price fell about 1.5% due to the coronavirus concerns and prospects of a restart of the Iranian nuclear negotiations, Kozhukhova said.

Freedom Finance’s analyst Alexander Osin said that financial authorities of the U.S. and China agreed to cooperate in regulation of Chinese securities on the U.S. stock floors, which is a positive signal for the global market, but the Securities and Exchange Commission said previously it had wanted to expand demands for shares of Chinese companies.

This means that regulatory conditions for companies would toughen over time, and it was confirmed by the criticism of the video game industry in Chinese media this morning, which was the likely cause of sales in securities of Mail.ru Group, which lost 2.03% to 1,475.80 rubles, Osin said.

Kochetkov also said that shares of petrochemical company Nizhnekamskneftekhim rose 2.14% to 93.76 rubles in reaction to robust financial performance. The company’s net profit jumped to 24.9 billion rubles in January–June from 2.9 billion rubles in the same period of 2020 as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.99	309.55	9.829
Gazprom	+0.08	286.97	7.298
Lukoil	-0.63	6268.00	6.031
Norilsk Nickel	+1.21	25596.00	3.738
ALROSA	+3.39	134.97	3.450

(73.0156 rubles – U.S. $1)

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