Russian stocks rise on oil price growth, US–China trade hopes

MOSCOW, Jun 26 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Wednesday supported by higher oil prices and a favorable investor mood, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.77% to 2,775.14 and the RTS increased 0.42% to 1,386.63.

“Hope arose among investors that China and the U.S. may restart dialogue in the wake of a comment by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and readiness of Donald Trump’s administration to delay introduction of import duties on the remaining U.S. $300 billion of Chinese goods,” Sofya Kirsanova, senior analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that Mnuchin’s comment that a trade deal with China was 90% ready. “Of course, we heard similar statements a couple of months ago, but given the fact that the negotiations failed before, one should consider this piece of news a good sign prior to negotiations of the heads of the two states in Osaka,” Kochetkov said.

“Dynamics of the energy market could have been the major reason for the purchases of our shares. The Brent oil price started growing after publication of the U.S. Department of Energy that showed significant contraction of hydrocarbon reserves in the country,” Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said.

Kochetkov also said that retailer Magnit was one of the market leaders rising 4.74% to 3,865 rubles on the news that CEO Olga Naumova stepped down and President Jan Dunning was to become a new CEO.

Alexander Osin, analyst at investment company Freedom Finance’s department for operations on the Russian stock market, said that the shares of power holding Inter RAO fell 5.88% to 4.54 rubles as investors still reacted to the sale by CEO Boris Kovalchuk of his entire 0.1523% stake in the company.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.64	240.59	9.501
Gazprom	+0.44	233.10	4.479
Lukoil	+0.92	5358.50	3.629
Magnit	+4.74	3865.00	3.336
Norilsk Nickel	+0.63	14148.00	1.631

(62.5229 rubles – U.S. $1)

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