Russian stocks rise on geopolitical risks decline, corporate news

MOSCOW, Nov 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock closed with a slight increase on Wednesday as geopolitical risks declined and the blue chips decided to pay interim dividends, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.18% to 2,227.19 and the RTS increased 0.34% to 1,163.59.

“The Russian stock market was recovering today on the weakening geopolitical risks,” senior analyst at Promsvyazbank Vladimir Lyashchuk said. “After yesterday's volatility surge in the Russian stock market, the situation stabilized today,” he added.

The board of directors of Gazprom Neft recommended a dividend of 69.78 rubles per share for January–September, which is higher than the market expectations, as a result, the company's shares rose, gaining 3.24%, he said.

According to Lyashchuk, MTS shares slowed down on the back of a 25.1% decline in the net profit in July–September. The shares of real estate developers were worse than the market on the news that the Finance Ministry saw no need to extend the preferential mortgage program with a rate of 7%.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova attributed the significant reduction of the geopolitical tensions to NATO’s decision to describe the missile downing incident in Poland as the result of Ukraine’s air defence rather than deliberate actions of Russia.

Freedom Finance Global’s Senior Analyst Natalya Milchakova said that the Russian stock market was kept from falling by the announcement of interim dividends, which blue chips plan to pay.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.46	139	8.569
Gazprom	+1.58	168.88	2.175
Lukoil	+2.11	4661.5	1.801
Norilsk Nickel	+1.78	15250	1.775
Gazprom Neft	+3.24	463.05	1.762

(60.3116 rubles – U.S. $1)

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