Russian stocks grow on rising crude, gas, positive background

MOSCOW, Sep 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market rose on Monday driven by rising crude oil and gas prices, as well as a positive background on the foreign markets and strong ruble dynamics, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.96% to 4,041.16, and the RTS Index rose 1.50% to 1,751.08.

“Some positive to the market was brought by crude prices, which were getting higher amid problems with production recovery in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as by aluminum, which made an assault on the level of $3,000 per tonne amid production cuts in China and probable risks of bauxite supplies from Guinea,” Andrei Kochetkov of Otkritie Broker said.

Kochetkov added that “the ruble strengthened its position” as the central bank’s decision to raise the key rate by 25 percentage points to 6.75% “made the Russian debt market more attractive.”

Alexandra Ovchinnikova of Sber Asset Management said the Russian market was trading in the green zone at the beginning of the week thanks to a positive external background. Optimism prevailed on the European markets and the trading floors in Asia were also on the rise.

Yekaterina Krylova of PSB Bank said that “gas prices continued to rally today, renewing peak levels in both Europe and Asia.” She also said that higher prices for gas are expected to remain until the spring of 2022 at least, which makes gas companies Gazprom Novatek obvious beneficiaries.

Kochetkov attributed a rise in UC RUSAL’s stocks to a very favorable situation with aluminum prices, which raises the chances of the company paying dividends upon the results of 2021, despite a recent decision not to pay them for the first half of the year.

The stocks of the gold producers mostly fell amid unsuccessful attempts of gold prices to go higher the resistance level of U.S. $1,800 per ounce.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+1,4	331	16,767
RUSAL	+0,94	72.805	7,123
Sberbank	+0,18	326.85	6,971
Norilsk Nickel	-0,2	24458	5,476
Lukoil	+1,74	6409.5	4,692

(72.7600 – U.S. $1)

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