Russian stocks rise in thin trade ahead of US Fed’s meeting

MOSCOW, Dec 16 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks edged up on Wednesday in thin trade ahead of a rate decision of the Federal Reserve System shrugging off falling oil, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.70% to 1,754.71 and the RTS increased 0.17% to 785.02.

“The MICEX index has managed to climb above the 1,750-point mark. But it could not go significantly higher than that. The reason for a slower trading is obvious. Market participants are waiting for the Fed’s evening decision on the key rate, which will be announced after Russian trading is over,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Hydropower giant RusHydro was among the leaders and grew 8.48% to 0.678 rubles due to strong financial results. The company’s net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) jumped to 5.516 billion rubles in July–September from 1.062 billion rubles in the same period a year ago.

Troubled airline Transaero plunged 3.37% to 10.04 rubles as the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region introduced a supervision procedure in the airline on Wednesday, which is the first step of the bankruptcy procedure.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.45	102.45	7.174
Gazprom	+0.07	134.50	2.770
Lukoil	-1.30	2415.00	2.621
Norilsk Nickel	+1.60	9108.00	2.111
ALROSA	-0.48	55.73	1.119

(70.8295 rubles – U.S. $1)

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