Russian stocks edge up on local corporate events

MOSCOW, Nov 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market traded mixed and closed higher on Thursday mainly driven by domestic corporate events.

The MICEX grew 0.04% to 2,132.65 and the RTS rose 0.89% to 1,126.52.

“The Russian stock market continued correcting with the banking sector being the major contributor,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Russia’s second biggest lender VTB Bank was the biggest loser diving 6.2% to 0.05205 rubles. Kochetkov said the stock started falling after the bank said on November 10 that its shareholders had approved integration of its retail arm VTB 24 from January 1 and decided to buy shares from shareholders that oppose the merger at 3.8 kopecks apiece.

Grocery retailer Magnit outperformed the market. Portfolio manager at Raiffeisen Capital Anton Kravchenko said that the stock rose 5.85% to 6531 rubles to win back previous days’ losses after its weight in the MSCI Russia index was increased.

Preferred shares of top bank Sberbank declined 2.32% to 185.6 rubles. Kravchenko said that investors took profit following several days of growth of the bank’s stocks following a sound financial report.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank (common)	+0.69%	227.5	19.176
VTB Bank	-6.2%	0.05205	5.883
Magnit	+5.85%	6531	5.608
Gazprom	-1.53%	129.2	5.482
Sberbank (preferred)	-2.32%	185.6	2.064

(60.2490 rubles – U.S. $1)

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