Russian stocks rise as fears of trade wars ease, oil price grows

MOSCOW, Jun 20 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Wednesday supported by growing oil prices and firming global stocks as fears of U.S. trade wars have somewhat abated, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.57% to 2,256.27 and the RTS increased 2.03% to 1,119.21.

“After several days of contraction, the global stock market corrected upwards on easing concerns over the consequences of a trade war between the U.S. and China. The European indices grew by 1% on average. The Brent oil price climbed above U.S. $75 per barrel overnight supported by contraction of U.S. reserves of crude,” Yevgenia Abramovich, head of the currency risks research department at Swiss brokerage house Dukascopy Bank S.A., said.

Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, believes that the exchange of threats of import duties between the U.S., the E.U., and China looked more like tactical steps aimed at improving positions in trade negotiations.

“China’s retaliatory measures are to come in force only from July 6, while the European Commission has one more week to decide on import duties on U.S. goods. We may conclude that the countries are not really keen on toughening trade, they are more likely warning the Trump’s administration…that the U.S. protectionist measures are likely to hurt U.S. business,” Kirsanova said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that several weeks of fears resulted in excessive sales of many assets, including Russian stocks, but today greed overcame fear.

Shares of Russia’s top bank Sberbank fell close to 200 rubles per paper over the past several days, and the price implies a dividend yield of about 6%. This made Sberbank one of the leaders rising 3.01% to 212.20 rubles, Kochetkov said.

Kirsanova also said that shares of diamond mining giant ALROSA grew 3.41% to 94.10 rubles on expectations of Thursday’s meeting of the company’s supervisory board, which is to discuss the dividend policy.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.01	212.20	12.856
Gazprom	+1.04	136.91	3.717
Lukoil	+1.00	4132.00	3.278
ALROSA	+3.41	94.10	2.601
Norilsk Nickel	+1.05	11243.00	1.993

(64.0683 rubles – U.S. $1)

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