Russian stocks rise on positive news flow, trade at foreign bourses

MOSCOW, Aug 20 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Tuesday following the international world bourses on positive news from around the world, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.93% to 2,672.84 and the RTS decreased 1.37% to 1,264.59.

“The Russian stock market has been growing for two trade sessions straight following other global trade floors…Again, tweets of U.S. President Donald Trump created a positive mood of the stock market players, as he said yesterday expected the Federal Reserve System to cut its key rate by 100 basis points as soon as possible. Investors understand that the president’s pressure may prompt the banking regulator to move sooner or later, and restarted purchases of cheap assets,” Sofya Kirsanova, portfolio manager at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

People’s Bank of China’s reduction of the benchmark cost of loans to commercial banks and its comment that it would continue searching for other measures to reduce the cost of money for small and medium-sized businesses provided additional support to the market. This, coupled with another prolongation for exemption from the U.S. sanctions for Huawei, eased concern of global investors about the ongoing trade war, Kirsanova said.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, also said that the external background ensured an increase of the Russian stock market, with gas giant Gazprom growing by 2.09% to 231.54 rubles.

“Stimuli announced by the German finance minister should ensure consistent sales of natural gas through European routes,” Kochetkov said.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS Broker, said that foreign bourses and oil prices fell in the second half of the day, while the Russian indices maintained their upward momentum. “It is likely that the relative strength that our market demonstrated today was based on the fact that it lagged behind active recovery of foreign bourses in previous days severely. It might have happened due to a large foreign order for the sale of Russian shares, the impact of which depleted with time and allowed our market to gain some immunity to the external impact,” Babin said.

Kochetkov also said that weak dynamics of retail trade in Russia continues to undermine retail chains. Magnit published a 45% slump of its net profit in January–June with sales rising 10.5% and like-for-like sales gaining only 1.1%. Magnit lost 1.35% to 3,584 rubles

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.64	216.00	8.039
Gazprom	+2.09	231.54	7.994
Lukoil	+1.65	5326.50	5.551
Norilsk Nickel	+2.66	15150.00	3.468
ALROSA	-1.67	70.55	2.045

(66.6082 rubles – U.S. $1)

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