Russian stocks increase on easing geopolitical threats

MOSCOW, Feb 8 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged up on Tuesday thanks to reduction of geopolitical negativity despite declining crude prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 2.33% to 3,551.65 and the RTS increased 3.04% to 1,489.18.

“The Russian market is rising thanks to negotiation hopes. The presidents of Russia and France have recently met with no evident results, but no disastrous statements as well. Anyway, the negotiation process continues, which relieves geopolitical threats,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

He added that local stocks have even ignored an over 2% decline of the Brent crude price.

The metals and mining, and petrochemical indices of the Moscow Exchange were among the best performers adding 3.36% and 1.38%, respectively, Kochetkov also said.

Largest children goods retailer Detsky Mir surged by 4.27% in light of its plans to buy back up to 3.5 billion rubles of shares.

Senior Trader at managing company Alfa-Capital Vladislav Silayev said that aluminum producer RUSAL, Far-Eastern Shipping Company, or FESCO, power company En+ Group and steel maker Severstal were the top gainers rising by 3.87–6.20%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+4.44	269.05	39.548
Gazprom	+3.11	331.25	23.611
Norilsk Nickel	+3.67	22.372	6.456
Lukoil	+0.31	7010	5.416
Yandex	+1.9%	3534	4.895

(75.6806 rubles – U.S. $1)

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