Russian stocks rise on hopes of easing of US sanctions

MOSCOW, Jan 27 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Friday as media reports about a possible forthcoming easing of U.S. sanctions and a Saturday telephone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump improved the investor mood, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.65% to 2,266.05 and the RTS increased 2.75% to 1,195.61.

“The investor enthusiasm was fueled by rumors that a decree of U.S. lifting the anti-Russian sanction is ‘ready’, and that during the weekend Trump will speak to leaders of France and Germany. Later media reported an official comment of the U.S. president’s aide that of lifting anti-Russian sanctions is under discussion,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

“Such news, be it even rumors, made the imagination of investors go wild, as they have expected the sanctions’ lifting only in the second half of the year even under the most optimistic scenario.”

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the major positive impact was made by confirmation that Trump and Putin will have a phone conversation on Saturday.

“Today the Russian president’s press service confirmed that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will speak over the phone this Saturday. It will be their first contact since the U.S. president’s inauguration. This pushed market participants to reassess their actions toward a higher probability of lifting of the anti-Russian sanctions,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment holding Finam, said.

Irina Rogova, an analyst at the Forex Club group of companies, said that the U.S. gross domestic product data was below expectations.

“The expensive U.S. dollar has contributed to this. It is possible that the Federal Reserve System will have to rethink its position on the monetary policy. The combined news flow left the oil price dynamics completely unnoticed,” Rogova said.

Nigmatullin said that retailer Magnit was among the outsiders of the market and lost 1.20% to 9,900 rubles due to a poor financial report. As calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Magnit’s revenue increased 13.07% to 1.075 billion rubles in 2016, which is worse than results of its key competitors like X5 Retail Group and Lenta, he said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.95	178.92	12.475
Gazprom	+2.39	154.09	5.681
Lukoil	+3.24	3486.00	4.833
Magnit	-1.20	9900.00	3.755
Rosneft	+3.34	402.00	3.518

(59.6356 rubles – U.S. $1)

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