Russian stocks rise on US-China trade deal, stable oil prices

MOSCOW, Jan 20 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks hit new highs on Monday following signing of a U.S.–China trade deal’s first stage, while oil prices are stable, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.72% to 3,219.92 and the RTS increased 0.54% to 1,646.60.

“The national market continues exploration of the record territory of the MOEX Russia Index. The external background remains positive thanks to signing of a trade deal between the U.S. and China. Even the Fitch agency improved its global economic growth forecast this year to 2.6% from 2.5%,” Otkritie Broker senior analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Sergei Deineka, financial analyst at BCS Premier, said that the risks that trade conflicts will escalate have subsided, the monetary policy of regulators is soft, sanction expectations against Russia are shrinking, the energy prices are comfortable, the dividend yield is high, and new private investors are actively coming to the market.

Moreover, the stock market reacted positively to the plans of the U.S. and China to reduce the tax burden on business in 2020,” Deineka said.

Deineka also said that metals giant Norilsk Nickel gained 1.51% to 21,850 rubles as the prices for palladium continued to climb to new records.

Kochetkov said that steelmaker Severstal gained 1.37% to 990.60 rubles in spite of posting a 2% decline in steel production in 2019 on January 17. The market was not scared by the decline as investors expect higher sales in 2020 as the company has resumed its infrastructure project, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.44	266.28	7.891
Gazprom	-0.74	253.50	7.627
Magnit	+6.40	3855.00	6.021
Norilsk Nickel	+1.51	21850.00	5.922
RusHydro	+3.07	0.6772	3.418

(61.5333 rubles – U.S. $1)

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