Russian stocks grow backed by rising oil, European floors

MOSCOW, Sep 28 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed higher on Wednesday after three days of decline supported by positive dynamics on European floors and growing oil prices amid the lack of news from an OPEC meeting and falling U.S. oil reserves, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.26% to 1,980.68 and the RTS increased 0.22% to 975.31.

Russian stocks were backed by “the improvement of foreign background, expressed in positive dynamics of main European stock indices and intraday growth of oil futures,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

The U.S. commercial oil reserves fell by 1.9 million barrels over the previous week, which supported oil prices, analysts said.

Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofya Kirsanova said that the market has either come to terms with the fact that OPEC will not make any decisions at Wednesday’s meeting or hope that after three days of talks an official protocol will clear oil producing countries’ common position.

Container shipping company TransContainer was among growth leaders rising 7.55% on reports that private pension fund Blagosostoyanie may sell its 24% stake in the company to a consortium of Middle Eastern investors, including DP World, while Russian Railways can buy FESCO’s 24% stake in TransContainer, InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

Shares of power producer Irkutskenergo jumped 13.17% on reports that the central bank limited power company EuroSibEnergo’s and its unit Telmanovskaya GES’ voting rights at Irkustkenergo’s general shareholder meetings until EuroSibEnergo makes a mandatory buyout offer to Irkutskenergo’s minority shareholders, Manzhos said.

Truck maker Kamaz fell 2.04% after reporting that its IFRS net loss narrowed around 64.7% on the year to 946 million rubles in January–August.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.24	147.18	5.974
Gazprom	+0.13	134.09	2.584
Norilsk Nickel	+1.76	9952.00	2.320
ALROSA	-0.92	86.20	1.337
Rosneft	+0.09	341.3	1.327

(63.6921 rubles – U.S. $1)

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