Russian stocks firm on fast Chinese economic recovery

MOSCOW, May 15 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks edged up on Friday like the major foreign bourses on the news that the Chinese economy is recovering faster than expected, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.14% to 2,593.91 and the RTS increased 0.41% to 1,107.49.

“In general, a positive mood prevailed on the local stock market today connected to noticeable improvement of the external background. The morning news that China’s industrial output grew by 3.9% on the year in April inspires some optimism. Economic recovery in the developed states will most likely go under the Chinese scenario,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, said.

Valery Yemelyanov, analyst at investment company Freedom Finance, said that the bulk of the stock markets grew on the Chinese statistics, but a U.S. Department of Commerce’s report about a record fall of retail sales and a 11.2% fall of industrial output led to contraction of the U.S. stock futures and indices limiting growth of the Russian stock induces.

But Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the mood on the international stock indices was mixed. The mood in Europe was neutral, while the Brent and the WTI blends grew by 1–2.5% on Friday evening.

“The bulls are uncertain about the grounds of further sales, even though we could see a clear decrease in the risk appetite in past few days. The markets of Russia and the U.S. and the oil exchanges are in a state of short-term uncertainty, and news about the virus and macroeconomic situation may pull the markets out of this state,” Kozhukhova said.

Manzhos also said that Moscow Exchange fell by 2.48% to 113.57 rubles due to a dividend cut-off in spite of a robust financial performance in January–March.

Shares of oil major Rosneft grew by 0.84% to 350.05 rubles in spite of a U.S. $2 billion net loss attributable to shareholders in the first quarter due to ruble devaluation and revaluation of foreign currency liabilities, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.02	183.85	11.679
Gazprom	-0.03	183.85	8.888
Lukoil	+0.09	4874.50	8.176
Surgutneftegas	+2.20	40.145	7.450
Norilsk Nickel	+0.51	20206.00	4.892

(73.9298 rubles – U.S. $1)

End %%md/jst%%