Russian stocks grow on positive external factors, rising crude

MOSCOW, Sep 1 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Wednesday, reflecting overall global market optimism, positive corporate reports and rising crude oil prices inspired by the expectations of OPEC meeting, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.33% to 3,971.02 and the RTS increased 1.84% to 1,715.09.

According to BCS Financial Group’s analysts, major markets were trading near zero ahead of today’s OPEC+ meeting, where no surprises were expected, and releases of macroeconomic statistics for August.

China’s business activity index fell below 50 points in August, indicating a slowdown in the economy, likely caused by the Delta strain of the coronavirus and regulatory measures, the BCS analysts said.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World Investment, said that the world stock indicators and oil prices showed upward dynamics, ignoring negative statistics from China.

Russian gold producer Petropavlovsk was among the growth leaders, rising 8.68%, thanks to the release of IFRS results for January–June, analyst at FINAM Alexei Kalachyov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+1,85	311.3	22.220
Sberbank	+1,79	333.8	9.333
Lukoil	+0,66	6,325	6.591
Yandex	+1,98	5,726.2	5.463
Severstal	-3,51	1,662	4.537

(73.2781 rubles – U.S. $1)

End