Russian stocks grow as sanctions pressurize ruble, oil at $52

MOSCOW, Aug 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Wednesday because new U.S. sanctions signed by President Donald Trump put pressure on the ruble, and the Brent oil price reached the U.S. $52 per barrel level, analysts said.

The MICEX grew 1.31% to 1,965.48 and the RTS rose 0.71% to 1,021.42.

“Weakening of the ruble was a likely factor of the growth of the ruble benchmark (MICEX),” Anastasia Sosnova, senior analyst at Bank Rossiysky Capital, said. The U.S. dollar-bound RTS grew only slightly, she said.

The ruble sunk to almost 61 per U.S. dollar after news about the U.S. sanctions against Moscow, analysts said.

InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said that a return of the Brent oil blend to the $52 level creates stimuli for the Russian market to remain bullish.

Finam expert Vasily Oleinik said that the Russian market was oversold and the Wednesday’s increase was partially due to technical reasons.

He said that Sberbank was spurring Russian stock market indices on Wednesday but the quotations of the bank came close to the resistance zone of 170 rubles.

Lukoil was another investors’ favorite. Metals producers grew near the average market pace, while electric power producers lagged behind on no ideas for growth in all companies safe for Mosenergo and Wholesale Generating Company-2 (WGC-2).

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.16	169.9	9.334
Rosneft	+1.87	322	2.783
Gazprom	+0.93	119.09	2.467
Lukoil	+2.57	2938	2.200
Norilsk Nickel	+0.96	9142	2.164

(59.8454 rubles – U.S. $1)

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