Russian stocks rise following foreign bourses, oil prices

MOSCOW, Apr 29 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks grew on Wednesday as the national market followed foreign trends and oil prices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.95% to 2,663.14 and the RTS increased 3.16% to 1,144.64.

“Again we see national market growth. It looks like oil has stabilized, and it is showing the signs of recovery. The foreign floors show optimism connected to large-scale incentives of the central banks and governments’ plans regarding withdrawal from the coronavirus shock,” Otkritie Broker’s senior analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

The Brent oil price gained 13.44% to U.S. $23.21 per barrel as of 6.01 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Valery Yemelyanov, analyst at investment company Freedom Finance, said that growth on the foreign markets sped up after the U.S. reported a 4.8% GDP fall in January–March instead of an expected contraction of 4%.

“A report from Germany that new cases of the coronavirus grew after quarantine was softened also should not have inspired investors, but the markets started growing even faster…The only explanation for that is that market expects more stimuli from the U.S. Federal Reserve System, which is currently holding a meeting to discuss the key rate. The logic is simple: the worse the data is, the more money will have to be injected,” Yemelyanov said.

The Moscow Exchange was among the loss leaders with a 3.07% fall to 121.50 rubles in a downward correction after several weeks of upward rallies, Yemelyanov said.

Kochetkov also said that the oil prices understandably resulted in domination of oil companies among the gain leaders. Tatneft gained 5.44% to 558.60 rubles, Lukoil rose 3.34% to 4,897 rubles, and Gazprom Neft increased by 2.61% to 330.35 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Lukoil	+3.34	4897.00	14.075
Sberbank	+1.56	195.80	13.580
Gazprom	+2.85	193.87	10.850
Rosneft	+3.95	337.95	5.120
Norilsk Nickel	+2.70	20596.00	4.777

(74.5706 rubles – U.S. $1)

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