Russian stocks increase as Gazprom says about to finish N Stream 2

MOSCOW, Sep 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Monday on the news that Gazprom would finish its Nord Stream 2 pipeline in a matter of days, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew by 0.66% to 4,028.25, and the RTS Index increased by 0.16% to 1,737.01.

"A calm external background allowed the Russian market to ignore the weakness of oil and industrial metals. Though aluminum jumped to a maximum since 2008 on the news about a coup in Guinea. There was little corporate news, not all positive," Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

Gazprom became the leader of oil and gas sector after saying that construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would be finished in the next few days. The gas prices in Europe remained close to U.S. $650 on the spot market, which helped Gazprom to demonstrate strong financials for January–June, Kochetkov said.

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that Brent and WTI lost about 0.5% but the European markets grew with the Euro Stoxx 50 rising by 0.8%. The U.S. S&P 500 futures increased by 0.2%.

According to Kochetkov, chemicals, petrochemicals, and metals were the leading sectors. Retailers were hurt by antitrust suspicions of Magnit and Pyaterochka price collusion.

Kozhukhova said that Mechel jumped without fundamental reasons. 

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+2.12	324.68	21.503
RUSAL	-1.43	61.505	7.811
Sberbank	+0.05	329.89	5.340
Norilsk Nickel	+1.14	24720	5.004
Mechel	+24.75	145.5	3.847

(72.8545 – U.S. $1)

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