Russian stocks rise after last week’s losses on no foreign news

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Monday, recovering after last week’s losses as foreign markets were closed for Christmas holidays, analysts said.

The MICEX increased 0.22% to 2,177.86 and the RTS rose 0.60% to 1,124.65.

“Christmas celebrations in a number of Western countries were the main reason of an emerging trading activity decline (in Russia). This is why, the participants of the local trade have been deprived of their usual guidelines from foreign stock and commodities trading floors,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

The MICEX and the RTS were sluggishly recovering after last week’s losses, Manzhos said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that Mechel was rising sharply on news that the redemption of the debt to VTB was rescheduled to April 2022.

Manzhos said that this agreement was the key condition for similar deals with Gazprombank and Sberbank to come into force, so the chances that Mechel will retain its assets are solid. Investors also expect that the financial performance of Mechel will improve in October–December as medium-term coking coal prices grew.

ALROSA grew 1.47% after the supervisory board ordered changes in the 2017 budget including a sales increase and cost cuts, Manzhos said.

Gazprom Neft fell 0.62% on the news that the company will raise an investment program by 12% to 404 billion rubles, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.48	171.97	3.659
Norilsk Nickel	+0.31	10202	1.727
Gazprom	-0.07	148.95	1.048
Rosneft	+1.51	388.65	0.631
Mechel	+6.6	189.1	0.393

(60.8528 rubles – U.S. $1)

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