Russian stocks rise on favorable environment, privatization talk

MOSCOW, Jun 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Thursday on support from the favorable external background and statements of top public officials about possible privatization, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose by 1.27% to 2,800.17 and the RTS increased by 1.79% to 1,054.30.

“The external background on Thursday was moderately positive. The oil prices stopped falling and switched into recovery, while the global investors were in a positive mood in spite of the fact that the U.S. Federal Reserve System gave a moderately rough signal after its recent meeting about a possible increase of the rates in the future,” managing company Pervaya’s analyst Ivan Kapustyansky said.

The MOEX Russia Index is close to its annual record, and still remains in the mid-term growth trend, within which the index may continue growing to 2,800, he said.

“The market was excited by the statement of Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina about reasonability of privatization of some large companies, which was supported by the heads of the largest Russian banks. Privatization may bring new investment ideas and money to the market,” Georgy Vashchenko, deputy director of the research department of Freedom Finance Global, said.

Veles Capital’s analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the Russian market was supported by interest of investors in some companies.

“The foreign stock floors did not show significant changes on Thursday. The U.S. market continued its growth in spite of tough rhetoric from the Federal Reserve System. It looks like investors will have to see the signs of serious problems in the U.S. economy to take their profits. The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS Index were in the green zone in the evening… and purchases were mainly seen in the dividend stories of oil companies and in some shares that showed short-term weakness previously,” she said.

The shares of oil company Tatneft gained 3.16% to 503.50 rubles thanks to dividend expectations. The company’s shareholders are to consider the dividends of 27.71 rubles per share on Friday, she said.

Kozhukhova also said that steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) rose by 4.91% to 165.74 rubles because the shares of steelmakers were popular as they recovered from the lowest levels of 2022.

Kapustyansky also said that multi-industry holding Sistema published a positive financial report for January–March. Its revenue grew to 221.1 billion rubles, and operating income before depreciation and amortization increased to 82.4 billion rubles, causing the company’s shares to gain 2.01% to 16.811 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.37	245.50	9.038
Gazprom	+1.86	171.00	6.840
Magnit	+3.64	4509.50	5.390
Lukoil	+1.00	5298.50	4.919
Transneft prefs	-1.91	143800.00	3.453

(84.3249 rubles – U.S. $1)

End