Russian stocks grow in waka of global markets, ignore sanctions

MOSCOW, Aug 27 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Monday along with the global markets, while the new U.S. sanctions were left unnoticed, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.45% to 2,312.93, the RTS index increased 1.85% to 1,084.13.

“The new trading week started with purchases on the global markets, and the Russian market is no exception: the leading indicators are rising moderately despite the new U.S. sanctions which have officially came in force today,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex group of companies, said.

Anastasia Popova, expert of BCS Broker, said that the Asian markets closed in the green zone propelled by growth of the Chinese market in the wake of the People’s Bank of China decision to stabilize the yuan. The European and U.S. indices also increased.

She said that Novatek was one of the Russian market leaders after JP Morgan raised the global depositary receipts (GDR) price forecast to U.S. $190 from $120.

State banks increased in the morning but later lost the pace of the rise, Popova said.

ALROSA increased after releasing a solid April–June financial report with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) outperforming market expectations.

PhosAgro returned to the May highs, rising 1.86% on the news from the FTSE which replaced GDRs with local shares of the company in the index after a six-month review.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.6	183.27	9.436
ALROSA	+1.35	97.8	2.821
Gazprom	+0.64	144.52	1.840
Novatek	+5.62	1070	1.639
Lukoil	+1.7	4577	1.136

(67.7911 rubles – U.S. $1)

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