Russian stocks grow supported by oil price rise, weak US stats

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Wednesday supported by growing oil prices and weak U.S. macro statistics, which revived market hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) will not raise its key rate any time soon, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.34% to 1,919.15 and the RTS increased 0.83% to 910.54.

“In the evening, the MICEX was supported by weak statistics from the U.S. It has already been noted that a rather unstable state of the U.S. economy will not allow the Fed to switch to toughening of the monetary policy so close to presidential elections,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said.

“This is a positive factor for risky assets. The oil price dynamics also contributed to the increase.”

The U.S. crude oil reserves increased less than the market expected, gasoline reserves slumped and oil production contracted in a good news for the oil price, investment company Veles Capital said in a research note.

The Brent oil price went up 1.462% to U.S. $42.42 per barrel as of 6.18 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“The Russian market continues to trade in line with oil, but lower volatility means only some corporate stories become occasional drivers for plunges or jumps in some shares. Other securities are only following the general market and the oil price,” Artyom Deyev, head of the research department at brokerage company AMarkets, said.

Oil company Bashneft lost 1.80% to 3,000 rubles after First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that preliminary valuation of the stake in the company, which is to be privatized, stands at $3 billion, significantly lower than the current market price, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Fertilizer producer Acron rose 4.47% to 3,625 rubles after it sold its entire stake of 50.5% in Russian–Chinese chemical company Hongri Acron, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.50	135.73	6.329
Gazprom	-0.34	134.04	3.404
Lukoil	+0.58	2797.00	1.889
Surgutneftegas prefs	+1.30	31.60	1.316
Norilsk Nickel	+0.82	9660.00	1.119

(66.8816 rubles – U.S. $1)

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