Russian stocks grow on metals firms dividend expectations

MOSCOW, Jul 27 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Thursday on dividend expectations from metals companies and a successful start of the reporting season, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index increased by 0.59% to 2,987.85, and the RTS index rose by 0.03% 1,039.04.

"The optimism fueled by expectations of resumption of dividend payments by metals producers (this is why the shares of metals companies rose actively yesterday), the start of a new quarterly and semiannual corporate reporting and redomiciliation of Russian companies, persisted on the market," Sofya Kirsanova, portfolio manager at managing company Pervaya, said.

She added that the oil prices growing to above U.S. $83 per barrel, and the global market positive mood after a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System also supported Russian stocks.

"The MOEX Russia Index continued to move confidently towards 3,000 in the framework of a medium-term upward trend," the analyst said.

The ruble strengthened below 90 against the U.S. dollar, but the growth was unstable, as support from exporters’ foreign currency sales will finish later in the week with the end of a tax payment period, Kirsanova said. However, there is no reason for a deep fall of the currency either, she said.

Finam analyst Anna Builakova said that VTB led the blue chips after publishing a short version of a financial report under International Financial Reporting Standards for January–June with a record profit of 289.8 billion rubles.

According to Kirsanova, financial reports by Yandex, under IFRS, and Unipro (+0.3%), under Russian Accounting Standards, were in focus.

Investors were somewhat disappointed by Yandex' EBITDA margin at 13.6% in the reporting period after 21.8% in April–June 2022, Otkritie Broker’s leading analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

Director of the stock market department at managing company Pervaya Anton Kravchenko said that the business split that the company is undergoing is the main factor limiting its growth.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
VTB	+6.45	0.025005	10.527
Sberbank	+0.6	248.53	8.729
ALROSA	+2.04	84.4	4.272
Yandex	-0.63	2638.4	4.103
Globaltruck Management	+99.88	164.6	3.540

(90.0468 rubles – U.S. $1)

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