Russian stocks edge up thanks to Yandex surge, global positivity

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market demonstrated a considerable growth in the first part of the day on Monday, encouraged by global positivity, then reversed as it was pressured by falling crude, but still managed to finish the day higher, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.30% to 2,761.15 and the RTS rose 0.73% to 1,365.14.

“The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS index stayed in the positive territory at the end of the trading session thanks to a number of corporate stories and the encouraging external background, but bounced back from the day’s highest,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

BCS Broker expert Dmitry Babin said that the Russian stock market opened gap up, but reversed downwards in the second part of the session as it was pressured by a sharp fall in crude prices. The Brent oil price lost more than 0.5% to around U.S. $53 per barrel.

Kozhukhova also said that the key U.S. and European benchmarks demonstrated optimism in light of a substantial trade deal progress between the U.S. and China.

Internet giant Yandex was among the best performers surging 6.57% to 2,061 rubles on the news that the government had suggested raising the limit for foreign participation in significant local Internet resources to 50% minus one voting share instead of 20% proposed previously.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Yandex	+6.57	2061	9.609
Sberbank	-0.26	234.94	6.693
Lukoil	+0.84	5768	6.204
Gazprom	+0.24	228.54	3.289
VTB Bank	+1.96	0.04364	2.147

(63.9542 rubles – U.S. $1)

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