Russian stocks rise Friday on oil, ruble strengthening

MOSCOW, Aug 28 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Friday supported by a firming oil price and rebounding ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.41% to 1,719.16 and the RTS increased 3.12% to 829.95.

“Oil started growing again by the end of the day, topping U.S. $49 per barrel that boosted investor confidence and gave impulse to purchases,” Alexander Kostyukov, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

The oil price increase was secured by U.S. strong macroeconomic statistics, China’s monetary easing and Venezuela’s offering to hold an extraordinary meeting of OPEC with Russia, Anton Soroko, analyst at Finam, said.

“Stock market bulls managed to push the MICEX and the RTS above 1,700 and 800 points, respectively,” Igor Kovalyov, analyst at InstaForex, said.

Shares of energy companies rose higher than other stocks. Independent gas producer Novatek rose 2.40% to 613.9 rubles, oil company Lukoil grew 3.96% to 2,520 rubles and gas giant Gazprom added 1.38% to 146.6 rubles, Kostyukov said.

Russian banks were supported by the rising national currency: Mosoblbank jumped 6.49% to 8.2 rubles, Sberbank rose 1.38% to 74.82 rubles and Bank of Moscow added 1.32% to 770 rubles.

Fertilizer producers and exporters PhosAgro and Uralkali, a safe haven for investors in times of a cheap ruble and oil, decreased 0.98% and 1.63% to 2,821 and 201.7 rubles on the back of the ruble strengthening, the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.38	74.82	12.941
Gazprom	+1.38	146.60	5.579
Lukoil	+3.96	2520.00	5.484
Rosneft	+0.35	246.35	1.940
Norilsk Nickel	+0.57	10430.00	1.664

(67.4473 rubles – U.S. $1)

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