Russian stocks increase supported by oil price growth

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Thursday in line with oil prices, although the growth was a bit offset by mixed dynamics on foreign floors, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.68% to 2,042.76 and the RTS grew 0.63% to 995.89.

“The effect from restoring oil is being partially offset by the lack of optimism on foreign floors, which is slightly curbing growth of domestic indices,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

Oil market participants are waiting for news from an informal meeting of OPEC members to take place at the end of this week, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofya Kirsanova said that the oil rally was evoked by Energy Minister Alexander Novak saying that probability of OPEC members reaching an agreement on November 30 was high and that Russia will join the fulfillment of reached agreements.

Power utility Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES) was among growth leaders, jumping by 6.27% after reporting that its net profit almost doubled on the year to 59.2 billion rubles in January–September, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Fertilizer producer PhosAgro increased 1.67% as its net profit rose 54% on the year to 48.5 billion rubles in January–September, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) gained 1.48% after its board of directors recommended paying 3.63 rubles per share, or a total of 21.755 billion rubles, in dividends for July–September.

Russia’s second biggest bank VTB Bank went down 0.19% as its RAS net profit fell by 1.28% to 56.9 billion rubles in January–October.

Mobile operator MTS dropped 0.36% on reports that its IFRS net profit decreased 12.8% on the year to 12.6 billion rubles in July–September.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.13	149.75	5.651
Gazprom	+1.51	147.70	4.151
Moscow Exchange	-2.07	109.00	1.611
Norilsk Nickel	+0.19	10289.00	1.423
Lukoil	+1.37	3105.00	1.400

(64.5463 rubles – U.S. $1)

End