Russian stocks rise as oil grows on approaching Vienna meeting

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Friday on the back of an oil price rise triggered by anticipation of a meeting between participants of the oil output reduction agreement by OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Vienna on November 30, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.59% to 2,161.17 and the RTS increased 0.64% to 1,166.09.

“After morning’s attempts of a decrease as a response to an ambiguous external background, Russian indices returned to growth, mainly because of oil optimism due to a continued rise of Brent quotations. This factor is limiting the negative influence from a sag on European trading floors trading under pressure, ignoring a decline of a threat of a political crisis in Germany,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

He said that foreign investors were uninterested in Russian assets and preferred to take profit.

Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofya Kirsanova said that a positive trend in oil on the back of an expected prolongation of the oil output reduction agreement is almost over but China’s imports in October and anticipation of the meeting of participants of the deal supported the oil price to a certain extent.

The Brent oil blend rose 0.4% to 63.80 as of 4:04 p.m. Moscow time.

Kovalyov said that MTS was the market leader rising 1.98% on news about plans of a 10 billion ruble bond placement.

Yandex jumped 1.89% after the antitrust approved a merger of its service Yandex.Taxi and Uber in Russia.

Magnit erased gains, falling 2.84% on rumors that the retail chain can acquire competitor Dixy, a risky move, as seen by investors, the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.08%	228	9.997
Gazprom	+1.50%	133.57	3.871
Magnit	-2.84%	6635	2.041
Aeroflot	-1.51%	159.85	1.687
Lukoil	+0.44%	3395	1.208

(58.4622 rubles – U.S. $1)

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