Russian stocks rise on oil prices, omicron strain vaccine hopes

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Monday supported by higher oil prices and hopes that the existing anti-coronavirus vaccines will help against the new COVID-19 strain omicron, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.80% to 3,879.54 and the RTS increased 3.10% to 1,638.72.

“On Monday, the Russian indices opened higher thanks to a positive external background,” Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, said.

The foreign bourses and oil prices grew in correction after November 26 sales on the news about a new and dangerous omicron strain of the coronavirus. But during the weekend, the World Health Organization said that it was unclear whether it causes a heavier disease, while the key producers of the vaccines said their drugs may be efficient against the new strain or a new vaccine can be created fast, Babin said.

“After emotional sales of November 26, the Russian market started recovering its losses. The Asian indices closed lower, but it was triggered mainly on local stories. The indices in Europe rose, and the oil price gained around 4%. There is no full information about the omicron strain of the COVID-19, but the initial concern about its resiliency to the existing vaccines were not confirmed,” Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global analysis at Otkritie Research, said.

The shares of gas giant Gazprom were among the gain leaders rising 3.62% to 337.80 rubles on the news that its net profit stood at 1.59 trillion rubles in January–September against a 202 billion ruble net loss in January–September 2020, and on company expectations that October–December will make the most noticeable contribution to the dividends for 2021, Kochetkov said.

He also said that robust financial results of fertilizer producer Acron pushed its shares 2.55% higher to 13,130 rubles. The company swung to a 50.934 billion ruble net profit in January–September from a 4.161 billion ruble net loss in the same period of 2020.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+3.62	337.80	30.729
Sberbank	+4.10	316.90	24.107
Lukoil	+4.12	6636.50	11.084
Yandex	-0.20	5369.00	5.842
Norilsk Nickel	-0.31	21494.00	5.222

(75.5873 rubles – U.S. $1)

End %%md/jst%%