Russian stocks rise slightly as oil prices grow, ruble too strong

MOSCOW, Jun 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market advanced on Friday as oil price edged up and there was a mostly positive news background but the ruble was too strong to allow a more significant market growth, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.49% to 1,883.34 and the RTS increased 0.29% to 1,041.49.

“On Friday, June 9, the Russian market took an upward trend right at the start of trade,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said. “Oil prices have returned to a positive trajectory (the Brent spot is getting 0.3% pricier today), which has become the main reason for purchases on the Russian market.”

The State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, approved budget amendments for 2017, which was perceived positively by investors. The Energy Ministry offered not to raise a surcharge on the base rate of the mineral extraction tax (MET) on oil in 2018–2019, which was also good news, she said.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said: “The U.S. political risks have decreased significantly as another attempt by the Democrats to get Donald Trump impeached fell through.”

Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said that the U.K. elections’ outcome was seen as ambivalent since after the party of the prime minister lost the absolute majority in the parliament Brexit can become milder but less predictable.

The ruble exchange rate influenced the Russian mineral resource companies’ capitalization negatively, Nigmatullin said

The shareholders of Gazprom Neft approved record high dividends of 10.68 rubles per share, and the share price rose 0.20%. According to Kochetkov, this was the key corporate news on Friday.

The Russian indices are oversold, and a certain upward correction is possible as foreign markets are growing, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.18	150.13	6.869
Gazprom	+1.01	120.5	2.551
Magnit	+1.78	9435	1.655
Lukoil	+1.43	2774	1.649
Norilsk Nickel	+1.09	8100	1.563

(56.9857 rubles – U.S. $1)

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