Russian stocks rise on Ukraine starting troops removal from east

 MOSCOW, Feb 18 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Wednesday encouraged by Ukraine starting removing troops from the eastern city of Debaltseve, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.88% to 1,809.67 and the RTS jumped 3.88% to 929.35.

“Troops have been removed from Debaltseve by 80%, which significantly raised optimism among market participants,” Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofiya Kirsanova said.

“During the first days after an official ceasefire, military operations were active, and this was putting compliance with the Minsk agreements at doubt. Today, attitude to the situation improved,” she said.

Market participants’ optimism is also encouraged by leaders of Normandy Four planning to discuss achieved success and further plans during a telephone conversation later on Wednesday.

Smoothening of the geopolitical tense also supported the Russian ruble, which strengthened to 61.58 rubles against the U.S. dollar, despite oil price falling to U.S. $60.4 per barrel, Kirsanova also said.

Internet giant Yandex was among leaders on Wednesday, having closed 5.2% higher, as the company’s US GAAP net profit more than doubled to 7.572 billion rubles in October–December from 3.346 billion rubles in the same period of 2013 and rose 26% to 17 billion rubles for the entire 2014.

Steel firm Severstal’s shares, which showed a 0.7% decline after the company reported a $1.6 billion net loss for 2014 against a 2013 net profit of $83 million under International Financial Reporting Standards, changed their direction later and closed 0.49% higher.

TMK rose 13.6%, showing growth for the second consecutive day, after Gazprom announced a tender for supplies of steel pipes for 67.866 billion rubles for construction of a pipeline to China, Kirsanova said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+5.45	76.40	17.871
Gazprom	+2.39	163.00	9.012
Lukoil	-0.33	3000.00	3.556
Norilsk Nickel	-2.07	11140.00	2.540
Magnit	-0.46	11766.00	2.052

(62.8353 rubles – U.S. $1)

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