Russian stocks grow on corp news, still no oil embargo agreement

MOSCOW, May 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market turned to purchases on Monday thanks mainly to a positive flow of corporate news and amid a lack of agreement in the E.U. on the six package of sanctions with a looming oil embargo, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew by 2.47% to 2,364.60, and the RTS index increased by 3.69% to 1,174.06.

“The bullish sentiment prevailed on the Russian market on the back of technical and news factors. ... The news flow favored the stocks growth as the oil companies are to announce their decisions on dividends for 2021 during the week. The oil prices remained high,” Yegor Zhilnikov, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said.

According to Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova, most of the stocks increased without fundamental signals and likely as part of speculative purchases.  

“It is not unlikely that investors have returned to purchases because they hope for relatively mild restrictions under the (yet-to-be) approved six package of the anti-Russian sanctions and for a sanctions pause after that,” Kozhukhova said.

Freedom Finance analysts said that the stock market upturn was also supported by inflation statistics released before the weekend, which showed a significant month-on-month slowdown of the indicator to 1.56% in April from 7.6% in March and by the fact that the government allowed a number of large Russian companies to keep trade in depositary receipts abroad.

Lukoil traded with an about 6% rise during the day on anticipation of the announcement of a dividend decision and closed with a 3.28% rise after the board of directors decided to postpone paying dividends for 2021 and to give new recommendations until the end of 2022.

Bashneft’s preferred stocks showed the highest growth among its peers and finished the day with an 8.29% increase.

Yandex rose 2.84% on the news that goods of electronics retailer M.Video-Eldorado Group will be available on Yandex Market, a marketplace of the Internet company, under the companies’ agreement to cooperate in the expansion of sales and delivery of consumer electronics and home appliances.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+3.69	244.2	6.856
Lukoil	+3.28	4523.5	5.201
Sberbank	+2.67	123.41	4.271
PhosAgro	+3.23	7990	0.729
PIK	+0.77	538.4	0.677

(63.7799 rubles – U.S. $1)

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