Russian stocks rise as risk appetite of investors grows

MOSCOW, Apr 25 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Tuesday in line with other emerging markets as risk appetite of world investors grew after Emmanuel Macron’s win in the first round of France’s presidential elections, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.95% to 1,998.41 and the RTS increased 0.39% to 1,120.89.

“Interest in risky assets prevailed at the world’s floors today. The euphoria from the victory of Macron was replaced by optimistic expectations of the program of a new tax reform promised by the U.S. administration. Foreign stock indices were in the green zone, and they supported the restoration of Russian indices,” Sergei Melnikov, a senior analyst at Forex broker Global FX, said.

Bogdan Zvarich, an analyst at investment company Finam, said that major European indices grew today still supported by the April 23 victory of Macron, and U.S. stock index futures also grew noticeably during the day, which resulted in the Russian market ignoring the dynamics of oil prices.

The Brent oil price lost 0.136% to U.S. $51.53 per barrel as of 6.29 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“The positive impact during the day was provided by companies of the fuel and energy and the power sectors…shares of these companies continued Monday growth on the background of reports that the government prepared a ruling setting the dividend threshold of 50% of the net profit calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for all state companies except Rosneft. The situation with dividends of Gazprom remains unsolved,” Alexei Adonin, an analyst at investment company Veles Capital, said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that investors hope that the government will order gas giant Gazprom to pay 50% of its IFRS net profit in dividends for 2016, and shares of Gazprom rose 1.72% to 130.20 rubles.

Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex group of companies, said that shares of uncut diamond mining giant ALROSA gained 2.28% to 95.21 rubles after the company’s supervisory board recommended paying 8.93 rubles per common share, or 65.769 billion rubles in dividends for 2016.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+1.72	130.20	7.477
Sberbank	+0.03	162.55	6.588
ALROSA	+2.28	95.21	2.716
Lukoil	+1.30	2957.00	1.730
Norilsk Nickel	+2.16	8873.00	1.313

(56.0794 rubles – U.S. $1)

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