Russian stocks rise slightly on growing foreign markets

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market increased slightly on Thursday, following a positive trend on foreign markets, analysts said.

"The MOEX Russia Index and RTS remained in the green zone at the end of the trade, receiving mostly positive signals from abroad," Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

Freedom Finance analyst Valery Yemelyanov said that the U.S. key indices were in the green zone as Chairman of the Federal Reserve System Jerome Powell promised economic incentives until all jobs lost in 2020 are recovered. The European markets mainly grew, while most Asian markets were closed for holidays.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said: "The domestic market is cautious as the oil rally stopped. The Brent blend price has been growing for nine sessions in a row until this day. It last happened on the verge of 2018 and 2019.”

“But the oil and gas sector grew by a quarter of percent. The chemistry and petrochemicals sector led, adding more than 1%.The electric power and telecom declined."

According to Kochetkov, the power sector was dragged down by Inter RAO, which lost 0.71% after publishing a weak report.

Cherkizovo jumped 4.17% after the board of directors promised 134 rubles per share in dividends for 2020. Reaction to the dividend news in Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) was less positive, and the company shed 0.11%, Kochetkov said.

Investors also took profit from TCS Group, (-1.92%) after the depositary receipts were listed with the standard MSCI Russia index.

Kochetkov said that Russian investors waited for a meeting of the board of directors of the central bank on Friday. "On the one hand, the bank faces inflation above the key rate, while on the other, the need to support the economy by cutting the rate. This is why most probably the current key rate of 4.25% will remain in place but statements about a possible inflation scenario will be made," the analyst said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.30	265.1	9.313
Gazprom	-0.35	222.45	7.152
Norilsk Nickel	+0.34	25428	4.569
Yandex	+1.29	5374.6	3.935
Lukoil	+1.32	5668.5	3.488

(73.8526 rubles – U.S. $1)

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