Russian stocks rise as investors hope for trade war de-escalation

MOSCOW, Sep 2 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks grew on Monday as investor hopes for de-escalation of the trade war between Washington and Beijing firmed, and trade on the Western floors also provided some support to the national market, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.20% to 2,773.01 and the RTS increased 1.23% to 1,309.22.

“The national market decided to set a course for growth at the beginning of the new month. The external situation was relatively positive as well, because there are hopes that the U.S. and China may start negotiating their trade disputes,” Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Alfa-Bank said in a research note that the optimistic mood returned to the stock markets as investors were waiting for the central bank to create monetary stimuli for the economy.

“This week, and throughout September as well, we expect that the optimistic mood toward the monetary policy, expectations of a new round of the U.S.–China trade negotiations, a relative stabilization of situations in Iran, Syria, and North Korea, stability of oil prices, and some positive news from Russia will become the reason for investor optimism,” the research note read.

Promsvyazbank’s senior analyst Bogdan Zvarich said that contraction of oil prices did not hurt trade in Russian shares.

“Sales prevailed on the energy market, and the closest futures contract for the Brent oil fell below U.S. $59, which supported the bears. At the same time, purchases in our shares were supported by the Western floors. No trade happened in the U.S. due to celebration of the Labor Day, but Europe became the main landmark today, as indices there grew by up to 0.3% in the evening,” Zvarich said.

Kochetkov also said that metals giant Norilsk Nickel gained 2.56% to 16,500 rubles on the news that Indonesia plans to restrict exports of nickel-bearing ore from January 1, 2020 instead of 2022 planned earlier.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the shares of oil company Surgutneftegas were among the gain leaders as the company created a subsidiary for investment in securities. Ordinary shares of the company gained 12.3% to 30.825 rubles, while preferred shares rose 4.82% to 33.80 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.11	226.68	8.812
Norilsk Nickel	+2.56	16500.00	6.043
Lukoil	+1.78	5475.00	4.606
Gazprom	+0.65	233.67	4.481
Surgutneftegas	+12.30	30.825	4.200

(66.4897 rubles – U.S. $1)

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