Russian stocks increase in line with growth on global floors

MOSCOW, Oct 18 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market traded mixed during the first half of the day, but turned to growth later on Wednesday, analysts said.

The MICEX grew 0.09% to 2,094.40 and the RTS rose 0.10% to 1,147.79.

“The sentiment of the Russian stock market is moderately positive today as… the global market is witnessing growth of major benchmarks… due to the start of a corporate reporting season,” Otkritie Broker analyst Timur Nigmatullin said.

InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said that crude futures rose although they have a limited upside, which discourages Russian investors.

Power generating company RusHydro dropped 2.63% to 0.852 rubles after business daily Vedomosti reported that the state-run hydropower giant may change its dividend policy in 2018 and switch to calculation of payments based on its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) instead of net profit.

Power grid operator Rosseti lost another 1.69% to 1.742 rubles after CEO Pavel Livinsky said the company intends to ask the government to exempt it from paying dividends.

Metal companies also underperformed. Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) fell 1.84% to 45.4 rubles and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) lost 1.64% to 134.2 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.96%	195.31	8.524
Norilsk Nickel	+0.24%	10756	4.347
Gazprom	+1.24%	126.7	3.739
Magnit	-0.49%	9286	1.247
Lukoil	+0.27%	3011	1.223

(57.3392 rubles – U.S. $1)

End