Russian stocks edge up on ruble dynamics, lack of drivers

MOSCOW, May 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased slightly on Wednesday, with an overbought MOEX Russia Index seeing a lack of drivers for growth, while the RTS Index rose in reaction to the ruble’s gains, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index edged up 0.03% to 2,634.48 and the RTS increased 0.86% to 1,039.58.

“The Russian stock market did not show significant changes at the end of the main trading session on Wednesday as it was waiting for important corporate events in the second half of the week,” Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said, adding that the RTS Index grew in reflection of the dynamics the ruble’s exchange rate.

The background for the market was moderately positive. The U.S. stock indices were rising while investors were waiting for the news regarding the debt threshold negotiations, the European bourses were flat without new drivers, while the oil market was in a moderately positive mood following the U.S. Department of Energy’s statement about a 5.04 million barrel increase of the U.S. oil reserves in the previous week, she said.

“A weak ruble was not enough for the shares of exporters to continue growing. The market players took profit in the shares that grew in the previous days… The MOEX Russia Index was suffering from technical difficulties, because a further upward movement means that it would have to renew the annual records, but there is no guidance after that, and risks start outweighing,” Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

The 11th package of European sanctions is an immaterial problem, because the sanctions are focused on ways to toughen the existing restrictions. At the same time, the search for these ways is a direct threat for export opportunities, Kochetkov said.

Managing company Pervaya’s analyst Ivan Kapustyanksy also said that the MOEX Russia stopped its growth on Wednesday after getting close to its highest point of the year at 2,657.90, because it needs new drivers to continue the climb.

Vladimir Chernov from Freedom Finance Global said that the shares of multi-industry holding company Sistema increased by 0.72% to 15.702 rubles in reaction to a report that Sistema’s pharmaceutical subsidiary Binnopharm Group planned to open a representative office in China until the end of May.

Kozhukhova also said that the shares of precious metals producer Polymetal shrank by 1.74% to 665.10 rubles as the gold price fell below U.S. $2,000 per ounce.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
VTB	+4.05	0.023235	8.984
Sberbank	-0.26	230.01	6.282
Gazprom	-0.66	175.89	5.810
Mosenergo	-7.44	2.73	5.190
Lukoil	+0.05	5088.50	3.139

(79.9798 rubles – U.S. $1)

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