Russian stocks increase moderately on high oil prices

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew moderately on Wednesday supported by high oil prices but pressurized by investors’ desire to take profit, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.31% to 2,232.27 and the RTS grew 0.45% to 1,234.64.

“Russian stock market indices have not managed to continue yesterday’s rally due to deterioration of moods of foreign investors who decided to take profit,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, an analyst at Veles Broker, said that the U.S. and European trading sessions saw a negative trend.

In the evening, the Russian indices started to rise after a decrease earlier in the day, Kozhukhova said.

According to Kovalyov, high oil prices and an improvement of Russia’s 2018 and 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) outlook by the World Bank limited the negative trend on the Russian market.

The Brent price rose 0.2% to U.S. $68.96 as of 7:14 p.m. Moscow time.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.1	237.76	9.385
Gazprom	+2.45	143.43	7.339
Lukoil	+0.34	3641	3.720
Norilsk Nickel	-0.17	11655	2.684
Moscow Exchange	+3.98	113.4	1.936

(57.0463 rubles – U.S. $1)

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