Russian stocks rise on positive external environment

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Monday supported by a general positive investor mood at international trade floors, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.26% to 1,962.79 and the RTS increased 0.75% to 993.77.

The Russian benchmarks grew in reaction to “a positive sentiment on the world exchanges. The futures for U.S., European and Asian stock indices are growing today,” Irina Rogova, an analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said.

The oil prices provided additional support in the first half of the day when the Brent price tried to return to U.S. $53, but failed, pushing the MICEX index down from an intra-day high, Rogova said, adding that the oil market is still worried about the OPEC production cut agreement after Iraq said it wants to be excluded from any deal on a production cut.

Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said that the Russian stock market was under influence of the positive external background. “The Chinese SCI300 index grew 1.2% today due to the growth of prices for shares of metals and coal companies that reacted to a hike in commodities prices,” he said.

In addition, the European index Stoxx 600 was in the green zone thanks to strong October Eurozone’s purchasing managers’ indices in services and manufacturing, which exceeded market’s expectations by about 1 percentage point, Nigmatullin said.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said that common and preferred shares of metals and mining group Mechel surged 24.87% to 145.60 rubles and 30.96% to 134.90 rubles, respectively, while shares of its affiliate coal producer Raspadskaya went up 9.56% to 68.41 rubles on the back of a price growth for coking coal.

An 8.31% increase in shares of agricultural holding Razgulay Group to 9.38 rubles happened as investors hope that the company will be able to settle claims of its main creditor out of court and avoid bankruptcy. But the company had to sell 26 affiliates, and the possibility of restoration of prices for its shares is low, Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.49	149.15	5.609
Gazprom	+0.07	135.05	2.073
Mechel	+24.87	145.60	2.049
Magnit	+0.01	10526.00	1.408
Lukoil	+0.77	3094.50	1.276

(62.4499 rubles – U.S. $1)

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