Russian stocks follow global markets up on lower capital outflow

MOSCOW, Feb 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased Monday on the back of a global market growth, as investors felt more confident with risky assets and traders looked at the decreasing capital outflow reported on February 14, analysts said.

The MICEX index increased 0.76% to 1,507.49, and the RTS index rose 0.31% to 1,347.31.

“The Russian stock market generally followed the global positive trend. The shrinking of net capital outflow from Russia-dedicated funds announced Friday provided a supporting insight for traders,” Dmitry Mikhailov, a portfolio manager at Alfa-Capital, said.

Russia-dedicated funds lost U.S. $53 million in the week between February 6 and February 13.

“The MICEX will try to stick to a level above 1,510 – this is a resistance level where, most probably, the stabilization will start. The growth possibilities are not endless but the foreign situation favors a moderate increase,” Ivan Fomenko, director of Absolut Bank’s trust management department, said.

In the U.S. the S&P 500 futures went up while the stock markets were closed for Presidents’ Day. Asian floors increased amid China’s new loan increase in January, analysts said.

European markets ascended amid strong macroeconomic reports signifying a start of economic recovery, Fomenko said.

The net loss of power holding Inter RAO widened to 53.7 billion rubles in 2013, but investors paid almost no attention to this, Mikhail Kuzmin from Investcafe said. Inter RAO rose 0.74% to 0.011251 rubles per share.

Acron is likely to keep attractive dividend yield because it has announced a capital expenditures cut, this is why the securities will be attractive, Investcafe analysts said in their research note.

Rostelecom and Rosneft’s shares rallied as investors waited to hear an update of government’s privatization plans for 2014-2016, Vasily Tanurkov, deputy director of Veles Capital, said. Rostelecom gained 2.22% to 115.20 rubles per share.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+1.65	151.30	8.431
Sberbank	+0.87	97.49	5.343
Rosneft	+1.10	249.90	2.569
Lukoil	+0.48	2049.00	2.019
Magnit	+0.74	8617.2	1.565

(35.2559 rubles – U.S. $1)

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