Russian stocks grow in correction on rising oil, positive environ

MOSCOW, Sep 25 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks corrected upwards on Friday after six days of falling, supported by rising oil and a positive external background, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.12% to 1,639.64 and the RTS increased 2.49% to 788.55.

The U.S. April–June gross domestic product growth was revised to 3.9% from 3.7%, which prompted growth on European and U.S. floors, as well as in the oil price, Vasily Tanurkov, a deputy head of Veles Capital’s stock market analysis department, said.

“It seems that the Russian market’s participants act basing on a principle that the absence of negative news is already positive news. Yesterday, we received rather pessimistic forecasts from the central bank’s Deputy Chairwoman Ksenia Yudayeva about several quarters of economic contraction, while today the news flow is closer to neutral,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said.

The ruble’s increase supported a stronger upward dynamics of the U.S. dollar–denominated RTS index.

“The MICEX index corrected upward after a six day free-fall. Energy companies were among the growth leaders. It is possible that the market players thought that the tax burden increase risks were already priced in, and began buying shares due to high oil,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Finam, said.

The Finance Ministry wants to increase the mineral extraction tax for oil companies, while the Energy Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry opposed the idea.

Oil companies Lukoil, Rosneft, Surgutneftegas and Tatneft grew 2.52%, 0.48%, 3.00%, and 2.90%, respectively, on the positive news flow and rising oil.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.24	74.97	6.397
Gazprom	+1.25	133.85	4.763
Lukoil	+2.52	2240.00	3.022
Norilsk Nickel	-1.00	9565.00	2.652
Surgutneftegas prefs	-0.35	39.31	1.134

(66.5151 rubles – U.S. $1)

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