Russian stocks edge up on global positivity, rising crude prices

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Friday supported by the encouraging sentiment of global stock exchanges and inflating oil, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 1.06% to 2,473.61 and the RTS rose 1.67% to 1,176.42.

“The Russian stock market opened 0.5% higher due to positive news from the U.S.… an upward trend seen on almost all U.S. and European stock exchanges provided a powerful support to Russian stocks in the first half of the day… In the second half of the trade session the market lost its enthusiasm and turned to mixed trade,” Veles Capital analysts Alexander Sidorov said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was reported to be discussing lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports and suggesting offering a tariff rollback during trade discussions scheduled for January 30.

Analyst at Freedom Finance Anastasia Sosnova said that Russian stocks were also backed by reports of OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA) which marked a significant oil production cut and pushed the Brent oil prices around 2% higher.

Russian top banks Sberbank and VTB Bank were among the top gainers adding 2.52% to 208.44 rubles and 3.91% to 0.0371 rubles, respectively.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.52	208.44	15.306
Lukoil	+0.17	5193.5	3.031
Gapzrom	+1.34	159.2	2.893
Magnit	-0.07	4152	2.453
Rosneft	+0.91	419.7	1.891

(66.4438 rubles – U.S. $1)

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