Russian stocks rise on favorable environment, corporate stories

MOSCOW, Nov 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market traded lower at the beginning of the day on Monday, but managed to reverse later to close in the positive territory thanks to an improving external background, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 1.74% to 2,737.54 and the RTS increased 0.26% to 1,069.33.

“As to the Russian market, the MOEX Index Russia jumped into the middle of the fundamentally important range of 2,700–2,750… The key blue chips returned to upward dynamics,” Promsvyazbank analyst Roman Antonov said.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that he MOEX Russia and the RTS indices fell in the morning, but recovered in the second part of the trading session following the improving sentiment on European and U.S. stock exchanges.

She added that the crude market also demonstrated relatively positive dynamics with the Brent oil price rising around 0.5% by the end of the day after hitting new several months’ lows during the day.

Independent gas producer Novatek was among the top gainers rising 6.16% thanks to corporate news, Antonov said.

Gold producers Polyus and Polymetal International surged 4.04% and 4.53% to bounce back from a previous fall on stronger gold prices, he added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.29	203.58	15.409
Gazprom	+1.5	156.59	9.648
Lukoil	+1.64	4116.5	6.467
Norilsk Nickel	+2.13	19266	4.057
Yandex	+1.41	4625.4	3.016

(79.3323 rubles – U.S. $1)

End