Russian stocks rise in spite of geopolitics, oil price dynamics

MOSCOW, Dec 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Friday in spite of worsening of the geopolitical background due to new restrictions imposed by the U.S. and in spite of dynamics of oil prices, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.20% to 2,232.72 and the RTS increased 0.71% to 1,152.33.

“Russian stocks grew in spite of today being the last trading (day of the year). It is possible that Russian securities were in demand due to a slight fall of the ruble’s exchange rate. Besides that, oil prices still remain relatively high,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said.

Still, the Brent oil price fell 0.212% to U.S. $56.73 per barrel as of 6.21 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“The main political event was the news on the U.S. introducing sanctions against several Russian individuals and legal entities on charges of interference in the U.S. presidential election campaign in the form of cyberattacks,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

U.S. President Barack Obama said that the blacklist over the cyberattacks comprises Russia’s Chief Intelligence Directorate and the Federal Security Service, four officials of the services and three companies which provided support to the cyber-operations by Russian intelligence. In addition, he declared 35 Russian diplomats non grata, ordering their expulsion until Sunday noon.

“It looks like that we will see a further exchange of diplomatic ‘compliments’ between Russia and the U.S. until the owner of the White House switches in January 2017,” Manzhos said.

Shares of retailers Magnit and Dixy Group grew 1.90% and 1.23%, respectively. It looks like the moderate interest in shares of Russian retailers is connected to expectations of an increase in pre-New Year sales, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.14	173.25	6.088
VTB	+0.01	0.074	4.129
Gazprom	+1.26	154.55	2.413
Lukoil	+0.72	3449.00	2.214
Norilsk Nickel	+1.72	10122.00	1.156

(60.2730 rubles – U.S. $1)

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