Russian stocks rise amid hopes for mild US–China trade conflict

MOSCOW, Sep 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Thursday as market participants hoped for easing of the U.S.–China trade conflict and for little to no negative impact on the banking sector by U.S. sanctions, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.71% to 2,357.32 and the RTS index increased 1.23% to 1,084.54.

“The Russian stock market continued to lick the wounds by catching a predominantly positive mood of foreign markets. Easing of the rhetoric by (U.S. President Donald) Trump, who offered China to resume trade negotiations and China agreed, had a positive effect on risk attitude,” Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex group of companies, said.

Kovalyov said that Sberbank continued to recover on news that the U.S. Senate did not mention disconnection of Russian banks from U.S. dollar settlements on Wednesday.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the entire banking sector rallied on statements that the Russian banking system is working on measures to counter the effect of possible U.S. sanctions.

He said that metals companies grew on hopes for a mild scenario of the U.S.–China trade conflict.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that Novatek’s shareholders took profit after large growth, and the company fell 1.82%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+5.52	183.5	35.719
Gazprom	-1	153.5	3.336
Lukoil	+0.79	4659	2.738
Sberbank pref	+4.52	155.05	2.660
VTB	+2.22	0.04048	1.535

(69.5728 rubles – U.S. $1)

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