Russian stocks rise as OPEC, non-OPEC states agree on oil mkt steps

 MOSCOW, Dec 12 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market rose on Monday as oil prices and the ruble soared on the back of the information that OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers settled an output reduction, analysts said.

The MICEX increased 0.83% to 2,226.89 and the RTS grew 3.46% to 1,148.59.

“Naturally, the outcome of the Saturday’s (December 10) meeting between OPEC and third-party producers was the key news for the market (on Monday). The states which are not participants of the cartel agreed to reduce their output by 558,000 barrels daily in the first half of 2017,” Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

As a result, the Brent oil blend soared by about 4% to U.S. $56.5 per barrel.

The ruble overcame the 62–64 per U.S. dollar resistance level and headed to the 61 notch, forecasted earlier by several major foreign banks, he said.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that the Russian financial sector was the market leader on Monday with Sberbank reflecting a huge leap of the ruble and the Moscow Exchange breaking a resistance level of 120 rubles per share, which gives traders a signal to buy.

Kochetkov said that only VTB was falling, erasing last week’s gains.

Coal producers reversed an earlier downward trend amid rising coking coal prices, Manzhos said.

Oil producer Surgutneftegas fell 2.28% and underperformed the market because of its large savings in foreign currencies, he said.

Kochetkov said that metals producers also reacted painfully to the strengthening of the ruble. 

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.38	175.4	20.083
Gazprom	+3.69	158.63	13.125
Rosneft	+4.68	388.15	4.397
VTB	-2.43	0.0734	3.473
Lukoil	+0.12	3375	2.780

(63.3028 rubles – U.S. $1)

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