Russian stocks rise as oil price, Western markets increase

MOSCOW, Sep 28 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks grew on Monday supported by a positive external background and rising in oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.05% to 2,927.17 and the RTS increased 0.19% to 1,166.86.

“On Monday, the Russian stock market switched to recovery thanks to improvements in the external background. The situation on the Western floors supported purchases on our market. In Europe, the major indices grew by up to 3.1% closer to the evening, while in the U.S., the Dow Jones and the S&P500 grew by 1.8% and 1.5%, respectively, after the first few hours of trade. The situation on the energy market also had a positive impact on the Russian shares,” Promsvyazbank’s senior analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

The Brent oil price gained 0.429% to U.S. $42.10 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, also said that the Russian stocks grew thanks to a favorable mood on the international bourses, but the RTS Index underperformed due to ruble depreciation.

The ruble lost 86.25 kopecks to 79.07 rubles per U.S. dollar and 1.2150 rubles to 92.1450 rubles per euro as of 6.16 p.m. Moscow time.

“The ruble started the day with attempts to grow, but quickly found itself under the pressure again. … Many people link the weakening of the Russian ruble at the beginning of the week to new escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Speculators expect Russia to interfere in the conflict and get a new set of restrictions in response. Nevertheless, the positions of Russia and France, as well as the U.N. and the U.S., coincide completely,” Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

Kochetkov also said that companies of the power and telecommunications sectors were among the growth leaders as they may win most from the government plans to raise tariffs by 5% in 2021. Power holding Inter RAO gained 3.23% to 5.84 rubles, and internet giant Yandex grew by 2.35% to 5,050 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.04	228.32	14.338
Gazprom	-0.97	172.09	8.424
Yandex	+2.35	5050.00	7.762
Lukoil	+0.99	4605.00	4.675
Norilsk Nickel	-0.84	18730.00	3.242

(76.8195 rubles – U.S. $1)

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