Russian stocks grow as oil prices rise to almost $42/bbl

MOSCOW, Apr 8 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Friday supported by oil quotations, which grew on U.S. oil output data and no negative comments of oil producing states about the upcoming oil freeze meeting in mass media, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.99% to 1,877.27 and the RTS increased 2.31% to 879.07.

“The Russian stock market moderately increased on Friday on the back of rising oil,” Veles Capital’s analyst Alexander Kostyukov said.

Promsvyazbank’s analyst Ilya Frolov also said that reports on a falling oil output in the U.S. in March particularly supported oil quotations.

Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said, “There were no negative comments of Iran and other participants of the upcoming meeting in Doha in mass media and global investors regained confidence in the positive outcome of oil powers’ talks on measures to restrain oil production growth.”

The dollar-denominated RTS was technically supported by a stronger ruble. Veles Capital’s analyst Yury Kravchenko said that the national currency fell below 67 against the U.S. dollar after Brent tested $41.8 per barrel.

Oil major Rosneft grew 3.16%, supported by oil prices, Kostyukov said.

Top lender Sberbank rose 4.06% on a ruble rise and on the back of strong financial results for January–March under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) released on Thursday, Bank Obrazovanie’s senior analyst Vitaly Manzhos said.

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) rose 2.32% to 24.3 rubles on market speculations after publishing quite weak RAS financial results for January–March. MMK’s net profit went down 43%, Manzhos also said.

Multi-industry holding Sistema rose 0.94% to 17.15 rubles after its management said the company’s cash flow will increase in coming years due to rising dividends from affiliates, Kirsanova said.

Automaker AvtoVAZ, car sales of which decreased 18.8% in March, went down 0.23% to 8.7 rubles, Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Retailer Magnit fell 0.12% to 10,320 rubles after its board of directors recommended paying about 4 billion rubles in dividends for 2015, down almost 70% on the year, Alexei Broker, an analyst at investment company OkBroker said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+4.06	112.92	13.826
Gazprom	+1.26	145.70	3.424
Lukoil	+2.04	2777.50	2.753
Norilsk Nickel	-0.68	8629.00	1.885
Rosneft	+3.16	316.50	1.767

(67.7960 rubles – U.S. $1)

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