Russian stocks rebound on geopolitical calm, strong crude

MOSCOW, Jan 25 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market witnessed a strong rebound on Wednesday, supported by crude oil dynamics and lack of major geopolitical news, slowly recovering from a significant decrease in the past week, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 3.04% to 3,357.66 and the RTS increased 2.13% to 1,324.40.

According to Yegor Zhilnikov of PSB Bank, investors initiated a buy-wave today, which was further supported by strong crude oil and slightly pacified geopolitical warmongering.

Businesses in the U.S. and the E.U. urged their governments to be cautious and not to undermine their relations with Russia. The E.U. also asked to exclude Russian energy supplies from any plans for restrictions on the country. “Overall, the whole sanctions fuss is beginning to irritate European businesses, which are losing money because of the U.S. plans against Russia,” Andrei Kochetkov, analyst at Otkritie Research, said.

All of the Russian market’s sectors were growing today, except for real estate, and the increase in most sectoral indices exceeded 2%, Kochetkov said.

Of the Russian market’s blue chips, the shares of financial sector sharks Sberbank and TCS Group were the frontrunners, and the shares of metallurgical and chemical companies were among the leaders as well, Zhilnikov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.2	239.12	40.448
Gazprom	-0.21	302.32	27.794
Lukoil	+0.53	6,578	11.692
Rosneft	-1.24	541.6	8.180
Norilsk Nickel	+2.82	22,072	7.537

(78.6422 rubles – U.S. $1)

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