Russian stocks rise on hopes that regulatory measures would help

MOSCOW, Mar 20 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks grew on Friday as foreign and local players priced in the support measures of international regulators, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 2.46% to 2,331.61 and the RTS increased 2.39% to 924.22.

“The external markets show signs of stabilization following a large-scale injection of liquidity and rate cuts by theleading regulators. Our national indices were not an exemption today,” Otkritie Broker’s senior analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

“In the past 24 hours, the Federal Reserve System introduced support of money market funds, the European Central Bank launched a bond buyback program, while the Bank of England reduced the base rate to a record of 0.1%. Even our central bank did not take the risk of raising the rate and even considered reducing it…The actions create good opportunities for short-time speculations,” Yaroslav Kabakov, director for strategy at Finam, said.

Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the background for the Russian market was positive during the day, as the European bourses returned to the green zone following announcements of state support. The U.S. stock indices also started trade higher on a report about a rise in the sales on the U.S. secondary housing market, Kozhukhova said.

Kochetkov also said shares of oil companies were in the gain leaders as the oil price increased. Rosneft, Tatneft, and Bashneft gained 8.83%, 13.09%, and 14.50%, respectively, but Surgutneftegas lost 0.52% as expectations for ruble movements are not as negative as before making the company’s foreign currency reserves unimportant.

X5 Retail Group was another gain leader rising 12.32% on expectations of a high January–March revenue following panic demand from Russians who were scared by the coronavirus quarantine measures, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.26	195.69	33.640
Gazprom	+0.97	176.26	25.224
Lukoil	+3.22	4472.50	22.947
Rosneft	+8.83	287.75	13.047
Norilsk Nickel	+0.65	16358.00	12.036

(80.1570 rubles – U.S. $1)

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