Russian stocks rise in reaction to ruble’s fall, oil price growth

MOSCOW, Aug 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged up on Wednesday as investors tried to profit from the ruble’s depreciation and thanks to the oil price growth, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.46% to 3,099.52 and the RTS increased 0.48% to 1,004.72.

“The MOEX Russia Index returned to the level above 3,100 in the framework of the mid-term trend of growth. The increase of the Russian markets happened against the background of rising oil prices and positive corporate news,” Yevgeny Linchik, head managing company Pervaya’s department of alternative investment, said.

Otkritie Broker’s leading analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said that currency revaluation remains the major factor of the market growth.

Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the background for the Russian market was positive with the foreign stock market mood improving after the situation with the additional taxation of the Italian banks had become clear. Investors also hope that the U.S. will publish a moderate inflation growth on Thursday, she said.

“The MOEX Russia Index tried to stay above 3,100, while the RTS Index tried to hold at 1,000 taking into account the falling ruble. The Russian investors are still trying to profit from the shares at times of a low rate of the national currency,” Kozhukhova said.

She also said that the shares of oil company RussNeft gained 2% to 173.40 rubles as investors were waiting for the results of the Thursday meeting of the company’s board of directors which is to discuss interim dividends for 2023.

Freedom Finance Global’s analyst Vladislav Chernov said that the receipts of rail cargo operator Globaltrans rose by 0.81% to 661.95 rubles. Russian Railways said earlier that its container traffic rose by 15.1% in July and by 12.6% in January–July, allowing investors to forecast an increase of the revenue of Globaltrans, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.32	263.78	8.622
NCSP	+2.46	15.195	5.917
Lukoil	+0.09	6130.00	5.202
Gazprom	+0.34	173.30	4.900
VTB	-0.73	0.026465	2.964

(96.0755 rubles – U.S. $1)

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