Russian stocks rise on oil rebound, Chinese statistics

MOSCOW, Sep 8 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks edged up on Tuesday encouraged by an oil price rebound, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.76% to 1,714.18 and RTS increased 2.30% to 793.99.

The Brent oil price grew 3.348% as of 6.59 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“The external background for the Russian market was positive today…The Chinese trade balance statistics registered a decrease of August exports by 5.5%, but the market expected a 6.6% fall and compared to an 8.3% July contraction, the results are not so sad. Oil prices and many commodities also corrected upwards on the news,” Vasily Tanurkov, deputy head of Veles Capital’s stock market analysis department, said.

The Eurozone’s gross domestic product (GDP) also exceeded forecasts, and the U.S. stock markets also opened with a significant increase after holidays, propping up the Russian market due to that, Tanurkov added.

“The Russian economy, oriented at hydrocarbon exports, reacted with a strengthening ruble to the expensive oil,” Timur Nigmatullin, analyst at Finam, said. Energy companies supported growth of the MICEX index, he said.

“Besides rising oil, I think that the continuation of the de-escalation process in Ukraine is also an important supporting factor for the market,” Nigmatullin added.

Metals and mining group Mechel looked weaker than the market with common shares rising only 0.26% and preferred shares losing 1.27% as investors are still waiting for the company to sign a debt restructuring agreement with one of its main creditors, VTB Bank.

Shares of second biggest bank VTB looked stronger than the market and gained 2,14% as investors were still reacting to the news that the bank and the Russian Post will create the post bank based on the base of VTB’s affiliate Leto Bank.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.48	74.90	7.376
Gazprom	+1.09	143.21	3.201
Norilsk Nickel	+0.28	10746.00	1.933
Lukoil	+0.63	2462.10	1.927
VTB	+2.14	0.06976	1.357

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