Russian stocks rebound on foreign floors growth, stop in oil fall

MOSCOW, Mar 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rebounded on Monday after a last week’s fall on favorable external background, with European stocks rising on strong macroeconomic data and growing U.S. stock index futures, amid quite stabilized oil price quotations, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 2.63% to 1,612.84 and the RTS increased 2.63% to 878.94.

“The external background for the Russian stock market was positive today. The European floors rose on strong macroeconomic data and U.S. stock index futures grew in light of higher-than-expected increase in personal incomes in the country. Oil quotations stopped falling and this factor together with the foreign background helped the Russian market to demonstrate a considerable growth,” Veles Capital said in a research note.

“In general, the MICEX rose mainly within a technical rebound after an excessive correction last week,” Timur Nigmatullin, a Finam analyst, said, adding that the upward dynamics were also somewhat supported by a recent Finance Ministry forecast for the gross domestic product decline of 3% in 2015 against 3.5–4% expected by the central bank, he said.

Mechel rose 25.52% as Andrei Kostin, CEO of VTB Bank, a company’s creditor, said the repayment of Mechel’s principal debt may be postponed if the company repays past due debts, Anton Fomin, analyst at InstaForex, said.

NLMK rose 4.77% as on March 27, it reported strong financial results for 2014, with its net profit soaring to U.S. $845 million from $189 million in 2013, under U.S. GAAP, the analyst said.

Tatneft rose 4.46% also on a release of strong financial results for 2014, Nord-Capital analyst Vitaly Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.30	63.01	7.561
Gazprom	+1.57	137.00	3.627
Norilsk Nickel	+6.31	10530.00	2.857
Lukoil	+3.10	2657.00	1.520
Rosneft	+4.32	247.50	1.077

(57.7279 rubles – U.S. $1)

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