Russian stocks grow in line with rising oil prices

MOSCOW, Jul 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Monday thanks to higher oil prices and the ruble propped, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.13% to 2,295.72 and the RTS increased 0.93% to 1,162.42.

“The external background did not spur any optimism, as the European indices were in the red zone fearing risks of trade wars and dissatisfied with financial reports of technology companies. Still, oil prices are more relevant to Russia. An October contract for the Brent oil price climbed above U.S. $75 per barrel,” Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

The central banks of Japan and England and the U.S. Federal Reserve System are to have meetings later this week to toughen their rhetoric, while the Bank of England may even increase its key rate. “It is obvious that reduction of accessible liquidity always has a negative impact on the market,” Kochetkov said.

The Brent oil price gained 1.026% to $75.06 per barrel as of 6.12 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Anastasia Sosnova, an analyst at investment company Freedom Finance, said that a tough geopolitical situation restricts the full-scale growth of the Russian market. “The topic of trade wars has receded into the background, but the markets are still pessimistic about it,” Sosnova said.

Kochetkov also said that common and preferred shares of oil company Surgutneftegas grew 1.10% and 2.30%, respectively, after it said that its net profit jumped almost six times to 371.4 billion rubles in January–June, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Shares of multi-industry holding Sistema also gained 4.80% as the company managed to redeem its liabilities to Rosneft, Kochetkov added.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Monday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.16	211.33	10.183
Lukoil	-0.34	4410.00	1.967
Gazprom	+0.66	138.90	1.829
Surgutneftegas prefs	+2.30	34.27	1.358
Magnit	-1.31	4214.00	1.120

(62.9726 rubles – U.S. $1)

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