Russian stocks firm on high oil price, hopes for negotiations

MOSCOW, Feb 4 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market firmed on Friday on support from the high oil prices and hopes that negotiations between Moscow and the West will continue, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index remained flat at 3,471.01% and the RTS increased 0.28% to 1,436.00.

“The external background is positive for the Russian market. If we ignore the pessimistic mood in Europe, the increase of the prices for oil and metals work for the national shares. The Brent oil price is above U.S. $92 per barrel due to the loss of production in Texas because of the Arctic storm,” Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Research, said.

Besides that, hope emerged this week that the negotiations between Russia and the West will continue, which is also a positive factor for the market, he said.

Vladislav Silayev, senior trader at managing company Alfa-Capital, said that investors bought Russian shares throughout the day using the favorable external background and the strengthening oil prices, but the enthusiasm faded away almost fully closer to the end of the trade session.

Investment company Freedom Finance said in a research note that Magnit gained 1.84% to 5,282.50 rubles on the news that its October–December net profit grew by 36.4% and revenue adjusted for acquisition of Dixy Group rose by 14.6%.

Receipts of online marketplace Ozon rose by 1.88% to 1,544.50 rubles as investors still priced in the company’s quarterly report that said that the gross merchandise value grew by 125% to 445 billion rubles, Freedom Finance said in the research note.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.37	254.22	29.818
Gazprom	-0.69	321.50	25.797
Rosneft	-1.00	563.30	12.444
Lukoil	+1.25	6951.50	11.325
Yandex	-0.65	3494.00	6.168

(76.6501 rubles – U.S. $1)

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