Russian stocks grow on media reports of OPEC oil market deal

MOSCOW, Nov 30 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Wednesday on media reports that a meeting of OPEC states representatives to reach an agreement on joint market measures was successful and as oil prices soared, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.87% to 2,104.91 and the RTS leapt 2.31% to 1,029.05.

“Restraint in the beginning of the trading session gave way to growth of the Russian benchmark (the MICEX index) on the background of various rumors about the success of the OPEC states’ negotiations on an output freeze,” Forex Club analyst Irina Rogova said.

The Brent oil price started increasing even earlier, as OPEC officials told media that there are high chances for the cartel to reach an agreement, and grew by about 7% to U.S. $51 per barrel in the evening, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Saudi Arabia agreed to allow Iran to freeze oil output at the pre-sanctions level, which according to Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, is a considerable trade-off.

During the day, the MICEX and the RTS were rising with the U.S. dollar-bound RTS outpacing the MICEX on the back of the ruble strengthening, Manzhos said.

Investors mostly ignored the news that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started a military operation to topple Syrian Leader Bashar Al-Assad, which can complicate the Russian–Turkish relations and can become a matter of concerns later, Manzhos said.

Kochetkov said that shares of the oil and gas sector saw significant gains during the trading session.

Aeroflot rose 2.35% after posting a solid January–September net profit increase, Kochetkov said.

Metals producers were decreasing on the back of the ruble strengthening, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.4	158.7	9.909
Inter RAO	-0.28	3.8	8.557
Gazprom	+0.71	148.8	6.625
Lukoil	+1.3	3188	3.561
Rosneft	+1.02	340.2	2.447

(64.9449 rubles – U.S. $1)

End