Russian stocks rise on local factors, lack of geopolitical news

MOSCOW, Oct 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged up on Thursday in spite of the unfavorable external background as local investors decided to focus on the local news, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.18% to 1,955.20 and the RTS increased 1.45% to 869.34.

“The external background was slightly positive in the first half of the day as the European stock floors attempted to grow, but gloomy dynamics returned to the European and U.S. bourses after the release of the U.S. inflation, which showed that the consumer price index grew faster than the forecasts expected,” Mikhail Shulgin, head of Otkritie Investments’ global research department, said.

Dividends of large companies like PhosAgro, Novatek, Gazprom, and Tatneft were the likely supporters of the market, as some of them are to be paid in October and investors will reinvest some of the money, Shulgin said.

Finam analyst Anna Builakova said that the Russian market stayed in the green zone in spite of the continuous discussions of new possible sanctions.

“Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said during the Russian Energy Week that the government had decided to raise capacities of the Russian ports and to debottleneck transport infrastructure to redirect oil exports. The shares of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port jumped by 11.56%, and the shares of Sovcomflot also reacted positively to the news with a 8.35% increase,” Builakova said.

She also said that the price of aluminum grew pushing UC RUSAL 2.09% higher.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.62	106.56	4.697
Gazprom	-0.49	161.00	2.985
Lukoil	+0.33	4162.50	2.542
Yandex	-1.18	2019.80	2.087
Rosneft	+1.93	297.65	1.796

(63.7559 rubles – U.S. $1)

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