Russian stocks edge up on weak US job data

MOSCOW, Jul 2 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Thursday on the back of weak U.S. labor statistics, which investors interpreted as a reason for the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) not to increase rates soon, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.08% to 1,641.05 and RTS increased 0.15% to 932.04.

“The Russian stock market grew on Thursday because traders doubt that the U.S. Fed will increase rates soon,” Mikhail Krylov, director of Golden Hills-Capital’s analytic department, said.

In June, the U.S. economy created only 223,000 jobs, below market expectations of 230,000 and significantly lower than 280,000 jobs created in May, even though the unemployment decreased to 5.3% from 5.5%.

“As the U.S. Fed uses the employment rate while setting a course for the monetary policy, some doubts of a possible rate increase arose thanks to such weak macro-statistics,” Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex’ analytic department, said.

As a result, the oil price increased 1.571% as of 6.11 p.m. Moscow time.

Common and preferred shares if telecom giant Rostelecom lost 3.54% to 87.02 rubles and 5.53% to 59.99 rubles, respectively, after a dividend cut-off.

The Moscow Exchange has announced it plans to halve commission costs on some option contracts and that pushed its shares 1.12% to 69.57 rubles.

Low-liquid shares of Yaroslavl Tire Plant were the growth leaders soaring 39.90% to 83.1 rubles on the news that holding Kordiant has sent a voluntary offer to buy the plant’s shares.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.65	70.54	5.916
Gazprom	+0.21	145.80	2.340
VTB	+0.35	0.07746	1.857
Norilsk Nickel	+0.38	9250.00	1.668
Surgutneftegas prefs	0.0	41.99	1.107

(55.4756 rubles – U.S. $1)

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