Russian stocks grow as US, China agree to return to talks in Oct

MOSCOW, Sep 5 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Thursday on the back of global optimism spurred by scheduling of a new round of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China for the beginning of October, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.49% to 2,807.06, and the RTS index increased 0.54% to 1,337.92.

“The Russian stock market grew moderately in the second half of the day, reflecting a positive external background as investors celebrated new agreements between Beijing and Washington on restart of trade negotiations at the beginning of October,” Arseny Dadashev, director of the Academy for Management of Finance and Investment, said.

“Abating political tensions in Hong Kong and the U.K., where the risks of a no-deal Brexit faded, also add to the optimism of global trade floors.”

Dmitry Inogorodsky, expert of International Financial Center, said that increase of oil prices triggered growth of oil and gas companies’ shares.

Sberbank rose as investors hope that the Russian central bank will not reduce the key rate further in 2019, he said.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that Surgutneftegas corrected downwards as CEO Vladimir Bogdanov said that a previous surge was caused by speculations and the news about a possible buyback by an affiliate was not true.

VTB corrected downwards after it reported that the net profit for January–July fell 13.7%, Kochetkov said.

Sistema’s shares grew 3.61%, boosted by dividend expectations, he said.

The shares of overheated metals producers eased on Thursday, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.62	230.79	12.611
Gazprom	+1.06	236.18	7.053
Surgutneftegas	-4.93	33.65	6.295
VTB	-2.11	0.042005	4.878
Surgutneftegas pref	-5.04	36.14	4.705

(66.5002 rubles – U.S. $1)

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