Russian stocks grow as oil price decrease stops

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Thursday since a morning dip of oil prices did not deepen, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.83% to 2,434.15, and the RTS Index increased 0.60% to 1,142.32.

“The morning sag of the domestic market was caused by disappointment in the outcome of the U.S.–China trade negotiations. It is so far only clear that the sides will continue the negotiations because there are still disagreements on the key issues,” Andrei Kochetkov, Otkritie Broker’s analyst, said.

“Nevertheless, the negative gap of the Moscow Exchange was eliminated by mid-day, and oil chips even saw growth because the (downward) oil correction did not continue.”

Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, said that in the evening the intraday fall of oil prices stopped and they consolidated in a U.S. $60–65 range, which can be seen as a trigger for a medium-term increase of the Russian stock market.

The continuing shutdown in the U.S. is positive for the Russian investors in the medium term because domestic problems are taking the attention of U.S. legislators away from discussions of further anti-Russian sanctions, Manzhos said.

Manzhos said that Rostelecom fell 3.23% due to an ex-dividend gap.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.13	196.75	11.066
Lukoil	+1.82	5152	4.114
Gazprom	-0.02	160.2	3.176
Magnit	+3.56	3830	1.602
Norilsk Nickel	+0.86	13343	1.412

(67.0795 rubles – U.S. $1)

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