Russian stocks grow as oil price consolidates at $53/bbl

MOSCOW, Dec 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased slightly on Friday as oil prices managed to consolidate at the U.S. $53 per barrel level, and a weakening of the U.S. dollar supported Russian bulls as well, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.34% to 2,128.99 and the RTS grew 0.27% to 1,050.21.

“The commodities market euphoria has ended but no correction is in sight so far,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

The Brent oil price was correcting downwards during the day but consolidated at $53. Alfa-Capital analyst Andrei Shenk said that market participants are unsure on the effectiveness of the recent OPEC oil output cut agreement because an oil price growth can stimulate the countries which do not participate in the deal, such as the U.S., to raise investments.

Anastasia Sosnova, a leading analyst at Bank Rossiysky Capital, said that Russian traders were rather inactive during the day. An improvement of the U.S. labor market figures was perceived as a moderately positive factor.

Andrei Dirgin, director of Alfa Forex’s analytical department, said that a reported U.S. salary decline in November triggered a weakening of the U.S. dollar which was the decisive positive factor for Russia on Friday.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that Lukoil was the leader of the blue chips on the back of information about a sale of the company’s diamond business.

MegaFon was developing an upward correction after the earlier lows, he said. The company grew by 2.16%.

Transaero plummeted 5.85% as investor hopes that the company will be relaunched gave way to skepticism, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.44	159.4	8.366
Gazprom	-0.3	152.35	4.138
Lukoil	+2.37	3286	3.400
VTB	+0.06	0.06835	1.825
Rosneft	+0.44	340	1.486

(63.6807 rubles – U.S. $1)

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