Russian stocks grow on oil price rise, Composite PMI increase

MOSCOW, Mar 5 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Monday as investors were content with an oil price and Composite PMI (purchasing managers' index) increase, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index increased 0.90% to 2,309.53 and the RTS grew 1.42% to 1,279.51.

“At the start of the short trading week, the Russian stock market is trying to disassociate from the external background and restore the recent loses. Both key indices were on the positive territory in spite of negative moods on foreign trading floors. Rising oil prices and local economic signals helped the benchmarks to resist the negative,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex group of companies, said.

Russia’s Services PMI (purchasing managers' index) grew to 56.5 in February from 55.1 and the composite index rose to 55.2 from 54.8. Investors were satisfied with the news, Kovalyov said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the shares of metals producers increased as China announced plans to reduce output at hazardous facilities. Gazprom’s shares also benefited from China’s plans to raise use of clean energy sources.

Detsky Mir and Mosenergo grew after publishing financial reports, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.47	277	9.443
Gazprom	+2.19	141.6	3.274
Magnit	+1.42	5130	2.294
Norilsk Nickel	-0.44	11199	1.785
Lukoil	-0.52	3730	1.405

(56.6616 rubles – U.S. $1)

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