Russian stocks rise backed by oil price growth revival

MOSCOW, Aug 4 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased Tuesday, as oil prices resumed growth after a recent drop to below U.S. $50 per barrel and the ruble started slightly appreciating against the U.S. dollar and the euro, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.64% to 1,674.46 and the RTS increased 0.30% to 837.43.

The MICEX index was demonstrating moderately positive dynamics reacting to growing oil prices, while the price growth was the main factor to support the national currency, Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said.

“Despite the oil price growth, the Russian ruble remains quite vulnerable, especially amid a key rate cut by the central bank at the end of last week,” Veles Capital analyst Alexander Kostyukov said.

Metals giant Norilsk Nickel closed almost 4% higher as its board of directors recommended paying 305.07 rubles per common share, or a total of 48.26 billion rubles, in dividends for January–June.

Fertilizer producer PhosAgro continued growing and closed 3% higher on news that conversion of the company’s global depositary receipts (GDRs) into shares and vice versa was resumed, Bank Obrazovanie’s senior analyst Vitaly Manzhos said.

Power producer Enel Russia fell 0.95% despite reporting a 21.15% net profit growth for January–June.

Oil major Gazprom Neft grew 0.4% on reports that its net profit rose about 50% on the year to 71.344 billion rubles in January–June, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.69	72.30	7.140
Gazprom	+0.31	141.89	3.762
Norilsk Nickel	+3.94	9889.00	3.748
Lukoil	-0.07	2507.40	3.013
VTB	-1.39	0.07100	1.873

(62.4677 rubles – U.S. $1)

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