Russian stocks rise on oil price rebound, Ukraine gas discount

MOSCOW, Apr 1 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Wednesday backed by growing oil prices and prolongation of a gas price discount for Ukraine, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 2.20% to 1,661.90 and the RTS increased 3.41% to 910.41.

“The Brent oil price is showing a 2.6% growth amid an absence of agreements between Iran and six international intermediaries on the nuclear program,” Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofiya Kirsanova said. The sides had to announce results of lingered talks already on Tuesday, but meetings continued on Wednesday, she said.

The market was also supported by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signing a ruling extending a gas discount to Ukraine for April–June amounting to the Russian export duty on gas, but not exceeding U.S. $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, analysts said.

Aeroflot’s shares grew 6.29% after President Vladimir Putin asked the government to support the company’s proposals, which would allow it to reduce flight tariffs. 

Rosneft closed 3.65% higher after the company announced solving all disputes with shareholders of defunct oil company Yukos and reported a net profit jump to 501.324 billion rubles in 2014 from about 135.5 billion rubles in 2013, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), InstaForex analyst Anton Fomin said.

UTair’s shares jumped 25.5% after the government said it could grant 19 billion rubles of guarantees to the airline. The money would allow the airline to cut its debt burden currently standing at 167 billion rubles, Fomin said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.58	64.50	10.288
Gazprom	+2.95	143.00	6.607
Lukoil	+1.85	2755.00	3.099
Norilsk Nickel	+1.35	10539.00	2.458
Magnit	+3.52	11750.00	1.732

(57.6500 rubles – U.S. $1)

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