Russian stocks rise on generally positive environment

MOSCOW, May 2 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Tuesday due to a generally positive environment at foreign trading floors and investor risk appetite, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.50% to 2,026.85 and the RTS increased 0.52% to 1,120.22.

“The external background is moderately positive, as the European index Stoxx 600 grew about 0.5%, and futures for the U.S. index S&P 500 showed flat dynamics. This week late on Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve System is to publish the key rate, and the market thinks it is highly possible that the regulator will refrain from toughening the monetary policy and delay a rate increase to June. These expectations support the demand for risky assets,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said.

Anastasiya Sosnova, a leading analyst of Bank Rossiysky Capital, said that the mood at the national bourses matched a moderately positive mood of trading floors of other emerging markets.

“The MICEX index grew strongly above 1% in the first half of the day, but later lost more than half of the increase due to contraction of shares of top bank Sberbank and energy companies,” Alexei Aldonin, an analyst at Veles Capital, said.

Energy companies fell due to the Brent oil price plunge, Aldonin said.

Nigmatullin also said that Pharmacy Chain 36.6 lost 5.39% to 6.85 rubles as its net loss attributable to shareholders calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) widened to 9.345 billion rubles in 2016 from 178 million rubles in 2015.

Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex group of companies, said that fertilizer producer Acron lost 0.96% to 3,318 rubles as its net profit calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) fell around 60% on the year to 2.865 billion rubles in January–March.

Coal producers looked weaker than the market as their sales may significantly fall in the summer. Metals and mining group Mechel fell 4.34% to 170.05 rubles, while Kuzbass Fuel Company decreased 1.55% to 114.20 rubles. Kovalyov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.87	166.64	7.110
Gazprom	-0.17	136.52	4.658
ALROSA	+0.02	98.13	2.632
Lukoil	+1.63	2864.00	2.520
Financial Group Future	+1.80	1267.00	1.678

(56.9838 rubles – U.S. $1)

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