Russian stocks rise on positive environment, Rosneft report

MOSCOW, Feb 5 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Tuesday supported by a favorable external environment, robust corporate reports, including an upbeat financial report of oil major Rosneft, and by good macroeconomic factors, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.94% to 2,547.27 and the RTS increased 1.02% to 1,223.48.

“The external background was favorable in the middle of the day. The oil prices were in the green zone…with the Brent oil price trying to regain level of U.S. $63 per barrel, supported by limited supply of oil on the global market. The trade in Europe was also optimistic today,” Yelena Kozhukhova, Veles Capitals’ analyst, said.

Sergei Drozdov of investment company Finam said that the European floors rose supported by a good mood of U.S. investors and strong quarterly reports of companies. The U.S. Federal Reserve System suspended toughening of the monetary policy, and that, coupled with hopes for a reasonable outcome of trade negotiations between Washington and China, allowed investors to focus on corporate financial reports, he said.

“The growth (of the MOEX Russia Index) was mainly prompted by a more than 3.5% rise in the shares of Rosneft. The company posted a very good report for the previous year, and investors not only saw that the net profit more than doubled, but also a reduction of the debt burden. S&P upgraded the company’s rating by one notch today,” Yevgeny Koryukhin, Alor Broker’s analyst, said.

Rosneft rose 4.26%.

“We could have written about a favorable external background, but the Russian market had its own reasons to repeat the records today. First, we should remind you about strong statistics that showed the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.3% in 2018. The Purchasing Managers’ Index in services grew to 54.9 in January from 54.4 in December. But it was Rosneft that triggered an intra-day increase (of the MOEX Russia Index),” Otkritie Broker’s Andrei Kochetkov said.

Kochetkov also said that shares of multi-industry holding Sistema gained 3.25% after the company said it will to raise the stake in online retailer Ozon.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.09	217.85	10.142
Rosneft	+4.26	428.50	4.431
Gazprom	+0.64	164.25	2.252
Lukoil	+1.59	5435.00	2.136
Magnit	-1.84	4054.00	1.224

(65.5859 rubles – U.S. $1)

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