Russian stocks increase on oil price recovery, flat stock markets

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Tuesday on the back of the oil price recovery and marginal changes on the stock markets abroad, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose by 0.71% to 3,862.32, and the RTS index firmed by 0.33% to 1,646.47.

"The Russian stock market indices remained in the green zone in the middle of the session but fell from the daily highs on the absence of additional positive drivers," Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

According to Kozhukhova, the oil market rose in line with the Brent and WTI futures that acceleraed the growth to about 1.5–2.0% after starting to recover from the local lows.

The European markets were moderately positive. The Euro Stoxx index grew by 0.3%, the investors remained calm although the German investor economic expectations indicator ZEW decreased in August, Kozhukhova said. The U.S. stock market was neutral ahead of opening with the S&P 500 index adding 0.1%.

The representatives of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) have lately become more proactive in statements about curtailing of the stimuli program at the end of 2021, which might destabilize the market. Investors also focus on the vote on infrastructure support in the House of Representatives and speeches by the Fed Chicago officials, Kozhukhova said.

Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said that the financial sector led the Russian market after Sberbank and VTB (+1.5%) published solid financial reports. Transport grew as well, while the telecom companies and chemistry declined.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.83	329.63	13.224
Gazprom	+0.48	288.06	7.911
Lukoil	+2.08	6421	6.150
Norilsk Nickel	-1.29	24550	5.782
Rosneft	+2.83	560.45	4.232

(73.5078 – U.S. $1)

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