Russian stocks end higher as US–China trade not endangered

MOSCOW, Jun 23 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Tuesday as investors' fears about discontinuation of a U.S.–China trade agreement turned out to be ungrounded, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.04% to 2,791.97, and the RTS index grew 1.94% to 1,281.18.

"Strong statistics for the euro zone and confirmation by the U.S. of their commitment to a trade deal with China have helped the Russian market to start to rise. Brent got near U.S. $44 per barrel, giving confidence to the ruble," Otkritie Broker senior analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

He said that in the morning markets were worried by statements by the U.S. presidential aide for trade Peter Navarro said that the deal with China was terminated, but it turned out that his statement was misinterpreted.

These concerns later faded and the European statistics came to the fore. Euro zone's combined business activity index rose to 47.5 and indicates a possible positive dynamics in the future, Kochetkov said.

Oleg Bogdanov, senior analyst at investment company QBF, said that the markets ceased to react to the coronavirus news despite new records of contagion numbers.

Kochetkov said that M.Video was among the outsiders on the Russian market, falling by 1.26% as the shareholders voted against dividends for 2019.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.7	207.84	10.441
Norilsk Nickel	+3.03	19702	6.925
Gazprom	+0.51	195.3	6.323
Yandex	+2.37	3331.2	5.164
Lukoil	+0.09	5474	5.014

(69.4835 – U.S. $1)

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