Russian stocks rise on dividend expectations, Gazprom growth

MOSCOW, Mar 20 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market rose on Monday receiving support from the dividend expectations of investors and from growth of heavyweight stocks including gas giant Gazprom, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose by 3.20% to 2,397.16 and the RTS increased by 3.25% to 979.83.

“The Russian stock market went deeply into the green zone receiving support from the optimistic expectations of dividends of the national companies,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The record dividend recommendation that top bank Sberbank made on March 16 drove the shares of the bank and other companies up, and the country’s second largest bank VTB gained 14.59% to 0.019125 rubles after CEO Andrei Kostin said that the bank had expected to post a record profit in January–March. VTB Bank did not publish financial results for 2022, but it is known that last year was not a profitable one for the bank, Kozhukhova said.

“Gazprom propelled the Russian market up significantly,” Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov said.

The company established a division with the functions of a pricing agency that would calculate the price indices for Russia’s exports using the international standards, Chernov said.

Promsvyazbank senior analyst Yegor Zhilnikov said that another factor in favor of Gazprom was the visit of Chinese President Xi Junping to Russia. Investors expect that a contract for the Sila Sibiri-2 (Power of Siberia-2) export pipeline to be signed during the visit, he said.

Gazprom increased by 6.15% to 173.33 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.79	199.00	21.910
Gazprom	+6.15	173.33	17.228
VTB	+14.59	0.019125	9.840
Polyus	+0.51	9406.00	3.468
Lukoil	+3.13	4240.00	3.463

(76.6044 rubles – U.S. $1)

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