Russian stocks rise amid oil, ruble, global floors’ growth

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Friday following a global stocks’ growth, as well as on rising oil price and strengthening of the ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.73% to 1,784.92 and the RTS increased 2.50% to 745.30.

“The Russian stock market faced positive external conditions today. Global stocks were supported by expectations of the U.S. key rate rise deceleration… Oil quotations quite increased today because investors still hope for an OPEC extraordinary meeting,” Veles Capital’s analysts said in a research note.

The dollar-denominated RTS was supported by strengthening of the ruble against the U.S. dollar, Vitaly Manzhos, an analyst at Obrazovanie Bank, said.

An expected decision of the central bank to keep the key rate unchanged at 11% did not influence the local market significantly. “The central bank was likely guided by the sensible and pragmatic principle, ‘First, do no harm’, on the back of very volatile macroeconomic conditions,” the analyst said.

Companies focused on the national market increased in line with the purchasing power of the population, according to Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at Raiffeisen Capital. Electronics retailer M. Video rose 3.96% to 259.9 rubles.

Yielding preferred shares of Surgutneftegas, which has huge reserves in foreign currency, were an investors’ safe haven on the back of the market volatility and rose 4.33% to 45.995 rubles, Manzhos said.

VTB Bank continued growth after it signed an agreement with Russian Post to establish the Post bank on Thursday and rose 2.93% to 0.0737 rubles, the analyst said.

The central bank’s decision, focused on inflation, put under pressure stocks of power producers, because the government may take steps to prevent a rise in power tariffs, Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Power producer Inter RAO fell 3.6% to 1.34 rubles, hydropower giant RusHydro went down 2.41% to 0.649 rubles and the Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES) fell 0.76% to 0.0585 rubles.

Fertilizer and metals producers and other exporters were depressed by the ruble strengthening, the analyst said. Mineral fertilizer producer Acron fell 2.94% to 3,571 rubles, steel maker Severstal went down 1.35% to 621.5 rubles and oil and gas pipe maker TMK decreased 2.67% to 52.90 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.20	96.50	16.055
Gazprom	+0.07	136.60	5.641
Lukoil	+2.97	2569.00	4.822
Norilsk Nickel	-1.34	8850.00	3.416
Surgutneftegas pref	+4.33	45.995	2.938

(77.3674 rubles – U.S. $1)

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