Russian stocks rise following oil price jump, seen firming further

MOSCOW, Mar 24 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged up on Wednesday as the oil price gained over 4% and may rise further, if there is no sanctions news, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.52% to 3,485.33 and the RTS increased 0.11% to 1,437.18.

“The Russian stock market received support from an oil price rebound caused by a traffic jam in the Suez Canal as a super-large tanker ran aground there. A media report that the jam may persist for several days, and the ships that carry 10 million barrels of crude, or about 10% of the global daily consumption of oil, are already stuck there,” Sergei Kaufman, analyst at investment company Finam, said.

The Brent oil price jumped 4.557% to U.S. $63.56 per barrel as of 6.20 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“The mood on the foreign bourses maintained previous tendencies on Wednesday. The U.S. stock market showed consistency and tried to grow again, while investors in Europe were more cautious even though business activity data for March turned out to be unexpectedly robust,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

“The Russian shares and the ruble reacted to the increase of oil prices moderately as the geopolitical tensions are still there, but if no news about sanctions comes until the end of the week, short-term buyers will likely use the chance to strengthen their positions.”

Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said that the oil price increase triggered purchases of the shares of oil and gas companies, and even shares of gas giant Gazprom gained 1.30% to 224.51 rubles in spite of ongoing negotiations between Germany and the U.S. on sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline.

Metals giant Norilsk Nickel lost 3.69% to 21,418 rubles after Interros of tycoon Vladimir Potanin suggested cutting dividends for 2020 and revising the dividend policy before the shareholders’ agreement expires in 2023. The securities of the other core shareholder –aluminum giant UC RUSAL – also fell by 1.59% to 45.25 rubles, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Norilsk Nickel	-3.69	21418.00	20.474
Sberbank	+1.42	286.60	11.375
Lukoil	+4.08	6204.50	8.272
Gazprom	+1.30	224.51	7.410
Rosneft	+0.96	570.55	3.528

(75.3585 rubles – U.S. $1)

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