Russian stocks rise on growing Europe, rebounding oil

MOSCOW, Jul 30 (PRIME) --Russian stocks rose on Thursday, supported by European stocks and rebounding oil prices, while the ruble weakening against the U.S. dollar supported the MICEX and limited the RTS growth, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.89% to 1,636.72 and the RTS added 0.22% to 867.74.

“The external background was quite favorable for the Russian market – European trading floors rose following a U.S. Federal Reserve System’s (Fed) meeting, as investors arrived to the conclusion that the possibility of a key rate rise in September diminished, and rates will be increased very slowly, as target inflation will be reached only by 2017, according to the Fed,” Veles Capital said in a research note.

“Today the MICEX index is showing positive dynamics. But the rebound from 1,580 is connected with the local increase of oil prices and is unlikely to become a mid- or long-term upward trend. Investors are worried because of uncertainty on emerging markets – the Chinese economy is unlikely to grow by 7% annually,” Zerich Capital deputy CEO Andrei Vernikov said with reference to dynamics of the MSCI Emerging Markets index.

The growth of dollar-denominated RTS was limited on the back of the ruble weakening, according to Timur Nigmatullin, analyst at Finam.

At the same time, the ruble was an additional supportive factor for the MICEX, which is denominated in rubles and majorly comprises shares of exporters, the analyst said.

European trading floors, which rose following a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed), also supported the Russian stock market, analysts of Veles Capital said in a research note.

Russia’s Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) rose 4.34% to 2,285 rubles as investors favored the company’s report for January–June under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Veles Capital’s analysts said.

Russian power utility T Plus rose 2.34% to 0.655 rubles after it published strong financial results for January–June.

Top car maker AvtoVAZ also rose 2.43% to 10.11 rubles, after it said it received a net profit of 729 million rubles in January–June against a net loss of 2.72 billion rubles in the same period of 2014, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.40	72.20	7.716
Gazprom	+0.79	139.80	3.361
Surgutneftegas	+2.71	37.08	2.211
Norilsk Nickel	+0.06	9365.00	1.870
Lukoil	+0.42	2441.00	1.580

(59.7665 rubles – U.S. $1)

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