Russian stocks rise backed by oil, growth on US floors

MOSCOW, Apr 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Tuesday backed by growth of oil prices and positive dynamics on foreign floors, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.32% to 2,263.85 and the RTS increased 0.24% to 1,237.06.

“The Russian stock market managed to enter the positive territory by the end of the day on Tuesday. The reason for purchases was a recovery of the U.S. stock floors, where indices Dow Jones and S&P500 added 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively, after first hour and a half of trading,” Freedom Finance senior analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

Growth of the Brent oil price to over U.S. $68 per barrel also supported the Russian market, he said.

Shares of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) lost 1.7% after oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said it halted talks buy Summa Group’s stake in the port after arrest of the group’s major owner Ziyavudin Magomedov.

Multi-industry holding Sistema’s shares fell 0.34% despite reports that the company’s net profit almost tripled to 4.119 billion rubles in 2017, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Fertilizer producer Uralkali lost 0.22% after saying that its IFRS net profit fell 46% 50.9 billion rubles in 2017.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.64	251.60	15.894
VTB	+2.27	0.0523	2.217
Gazprom	+0.58	141.13	1.949
Lukoil	-0.11	3951.00	1.816
Rosneft	+1.36	313.25	1.392

(57.2850 rubles – U.S. $1)

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