Russian stocks rise on slight Brent price rebound

MOSCOW, Dec 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased on Wednesday supported by the oil price strengthening to above U.S. $41 per barrel of Brent by the closing bell, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.83% to 1,733.09 and the RTS increased 1.96% to 792.41.

Russian stocks rose on the back of rising oil, Mikhail Abramov, an analyst at Veles Capital, said. “In our point of view, a slight revival on the oil market was triggered by API’s recent data on U.S. crude oil reserves. Oil companies’ stocks grow in line with rising oil,” he said.

The Russian stock market and oil quotations just slightly rebounded after their two-week fall, Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Obrazovanie Bank, said.

Top lender Sberbank rose 3.77% on the back of the ruble strengthening to about 68.9 against the U.S. dollar by the end of the trading session.

Oil company Tatneft, whose output increased 8.3% on the year in November, rose 2.20% on the back of the revival on the oil market, Abramov said.

Grocery retailer Magnit fell 3.54% after publishing weak operating results, Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said

Fertilizer producer Uralkali decreased 1.80% after the company’s long-term rating was downgraded to BB- from BB by Standard & Poor's (S&P), Manzhos said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.77	100.66	11.799
Gazprom	+0.86	135.81	3.447
Magnit	-3.54	11180.00	3.135
Lukoil	+0.30	2385.10	2.223
VTB	+3.59	0.07505	1.868

(69.3026 rubles – U.S. $1)

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