Russian stocks rise ignoring Turkish woes supported by weak ruble

MOSCOW, Aug 13 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Monday supported by a weak ruble despite a plunge on another emerging market, in Turkey, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.46% to 2,285.61 and the RTS increased 0.27% to 1,059.76.

“At the start of currency trade in Asia today, the Turkish lira’s rate against the U.S. dollar fell 10% more to a historical low record…The composite index of the Asian region lost almost 1%. The Chinese stock indices fell more than 1%...and Japan’s Nikkei index shrank by 0.8%. The European indices were also in the red zone today due to the situation in Turkey, though their losses are not so significant,” Vasily Oleinik, an analyst at investment company Finam, said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, an analyst at Veles Broker, said that the background for the Russian market improved during the day when the U.S. bourses opened with an increase of its major indices, and

the European investors calmed down somewhat thanks to the Turkish central bank’s measures to stabilize the situation.

“The Turkish crisis hurt trade in all kinds of risky assets. The MSCI Emerging Markets index fell to its one year low today. The Russian market also began the day in the red zone, but then the weak ruble provided support to the ruble-denominated MOEX Russia index,” Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Kochetkov said that global depositary receipts of agricultural holding Rusagro gained 0.87% on a report that the company’s net profit almost quadrupled on the year. The company’s board of directors also recommended paying 1.026 billion rubles in dividends for January–June.

He also said that shares of metals companies were supported by the news that the Russian government had made no plans to impose an additional tax on the sector. Norilsk Nickel was also supported by strong financial results of the company. Its net profit soared 80% to U.S. $1.653 billion in January–June.

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

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Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.07	190.00	20.129
Lukoil	-0.79	4541.00	3.314
Gazprom	-1.31	142.90	3.281
Norilsk Nickel	+1.90	11005.00	3.251
Magnit	+0.15	4039.00	2.338

(66.9075 rubles – U.S. $1)

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