Russian stocks rise, as oil price, ruble grow on China, US data

MOSCOW, Feb 29 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Monday on the back of rising oil prices and a strong ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.29% to 1,840.17 and the RTS increased 1.50% to 768.80.

“A sustainable trend of rising capitalization of the Russian stock market persists. The ruble does not lag behind and strengthens against the dollar and the euro. The Brent price has exceeded U.S. $36 per barrel and gave a go-ahead for the Russian stocks and the currency market,” Andrei Dirgin, head of the analytical department at Alfa-Forex, said.

The ruble also technically sped up the rise of the dollar-denominated RTS. The national currency increased in line with oil, which was supported by Chinese banking news, according to Dirgin. Veles Capital said that U.S. data on falling drilling rigs still support oil prices.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Brocker, said that Russian Grids jumped 9.11% to 0.5367 rubles, after its CEO Oleg Budargin said that the company may pay dividends for the first time since 2013.

Inter RAO, the net profit of which rose 140% to 23.9 billion rubles in 2015, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), rose 3.35% to 1.59 rubles.

Independent gas producer Novatek increased 2.52% to 646 rubles, after Deputy CEO Denis Khramov said that the company plans to increase its share on the global market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 7%, or 33 million tonnes, by 2025, Kochetkov said.

Gas giant Gazprom added 1.97% to 141.4 rubles after its CEO Alexei Miller said that company’s exports to Europe surged 37.5% since January compared to an 8% growth in 2015, the analyst said.

Oil company Bashneft rose 3.31% to 2,622 rubles after Deputy Economic Development Minister Nikolai Podguzov said that a draft order to privatize Bashneft envisages the sale of an entire 50.08% government’s stake.

Flagship carrier Aeroflot, which can be also privatized, rose 3.16% to 57.1 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.72	107.00	9.761
Gazprom	+1.97	141.40	5.305
Lukoil	+3.83	2686.00	4.124
Norilsk Nickel	+2.32	9142.00	2.612
Rosneft	+1.52	287.60	2.023

(75.0903 rubles – U.S. $1)

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