Russian stocks mixed on decline of global floors, rising oil

MOSCOW, Mar 4 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday amid pessimistic moods on foreign exchanges and rising oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.54% to 3,397.56 and the RTS increased 0.07% to 1,454.67.

“The MOEX Russia Index and RTS were in minus by the end of trading after growth attempts during the day,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The foreign background was mixed. Trading in the U.S. started with growth of three main indices, which went into minus by the end of the day and were losing 0.3–1.3%. Moderately negative moods were seen on European floors.

The nearest futures for Brent and WTI oil were adding around 2% by the end of the day on statements by a number of representatives of OPEC+ states during a meeting of the monitoring committee.

Power producer Unipro was among growth leaders, adding 3.04% on the company’s plans to raise earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) by 12% in 2021 and pay 20 billion rubles in annual dividends in 2021–2022.

Mobile operator MTS added 2.36% after reporting a 7.4% increase in revenue in October–December 2020.

Metals giant Norilsk Nickel was among outsiders, losing 3.81%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Norilsk Nickel	-3.81	22416.00	21.865
Sberbank	+0.66	279.84	19.876
Lukoil	+1.99	5814.50	7.594
Gazprom	+0.58	223.44	7.360
Rosneft	+1.11	539.70	5.224

(73.5187 rubles – U.S. $1)

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