Russian stocks grow on calm foreign markets, corporate news

MOSCOW, Apr 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Tuesday in thin trade, as the foreign markets were relatively calm, while there was a significant flow of positive local corporate news, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew by 6.05% to 2,318.46, and the RTS index increased by 6.24% to 999.84.

"The local market grew on the back of a relatively stable external background and some corporate news. Besides, we can say that there is a technical correction after several days of decline," Otkritie Research analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Yandex increased after launching an online fashion retailer, VK Group grew 2.05% after starting playground VK Play, Kochetkov said. Developers rose after President Vladimir Putin offered to cut the beneficial mortgage rate to 9% from 12%.

He added that the investor activity was low, which did not allow him to qualify the situation as the start of a positive trend.

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the U.S. stock market was moderately negative, as the S&P 500 futures lost 0.4% in the middle of the Russian session. The European markets were moderately positive with the Euro Stoxx 50 adding about 0.9%. The nearest Brent and WTI futures rose by 1%.

The analyst said that the market shrugged off sanctions imposed by Poland against Gazprom, Novatek, PhosAgro and Acron.

TCS Group corrected upwards 8.65% after Monday’s fall on the news that owner Oleg Tinkov wanted to sell his 35% stake in the group, Kochetkov said. He also said that the current capitalization of the groups is unfair, because assets exceed capitalization. This means that the risks of a stake sale below the market are overstated.

The oil and gas sector rose, as the market does not believe in severe restrictions on Russian oil, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+9.45	225.85	10.251
Sberbank	+9.35	122.36	9.830
Lukoil	+9.18	4292	5.762
Yandex	+5.26	1600.8	1.528
Novatek	+8.46	1049	1.384

(73.3611 rubles – U.S. $1)

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