Russian stocks rise after selloff as Brent exceeds $56.5

MOSCOW, Mar 1 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Wednesday as investors opened more longs after the Brent oil price exceeded U.S. $56.5 per barrel, analysts said.

The MICEX grew 1.18% to 2,059.87 and the RTS increased 0.90% to 1,109.39.

“On the first day of March, Russian stock indices are gaining on the back of a general interest to risk and resumption of an oil price rise,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

He said that a recent speech by U.S. President Donald Trump in the Congress made investors optimistic because albeit Trump did not make any groundbreaking statements, he abstained from aggressive comments addressing other states.

According to Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, the Russian market used to be oversold, which is one of the reasons behind the positive trend on Wednesday.

Russia’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 52.5 in February from 54.7 in January, which, according to Kochetkov, was bad news for Russian market bulls. But Yevgeny Loktyukhov, head of Promsvyazbank’s research department, said that growing PMI indices of other states boosted investor appetite for risk.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.56	160.00	9.934
Gazprom	-0.11	133.85	5.108
Rosneft	+3.23	341.80	2.038
Lukoil	+1.1	3120	1.772
Norilsk Nickel	+0.64	9371	1.458

(57.9627 rubles – U.S. $1)

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