Russian stocks grow backed by oil price rebound

MOSCOW, Aug 11 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Thursday as oil prices resumed growth after a recent fall, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.49% to 1,952.18 and the RTS increased 0.65% to 952.81.

“In the second half of the day, the oil price won back all losses suffered since Wednesday evening and strengthened to U.S. $45.5 per barrel by the end of the working day,” Yury Kravchenko, an analyst at Veles Capital, said.

“A decrease in oil prices in the first half of the day put pressure on Russian stocks. The situation on the oil market sharply changed by the evening – investors appreciated today’s publication of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) monthly report. Although on the whole the IEA’s August report looks more negative than OPEC’s report released yesterday, along with OPEC the IEA expects the market’s further movement to balance of supply and demand,” Veles Capital analysts said in a research note.

State-controlled power utility Russian Grids was among growth leaders, having increased 6.44% on expectations of a 45–50% net profit growth in 2016, the analysts said.

Power producer Unipro, earlier known as E.ON Russia, decreased 0.1% after posting a 608.49 million ruble net loss in January–June against a 5.755 billion ruble net profit in the same period of 2015, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Oil major Rosneft fell 0.47% despite reporting a 0.7% increase of hydrocarbon output in January–June.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.01	139.70	5.326
Gazprom	-0.15	137.19	3.165
Norilsk Nickel	+0.62	9989.00	2.015
Lukoil	+1.72	2785.00	1.637
Surgutneftegas pref	+2.28	33.45	1.346

(64.8137 rubles – U.S. $1)

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