Russian stocks rise supported by firming oil, ruble

MOSCOW, Jul 29 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks corrected upwards on Wednesday after earlier losses and were also supported by rising oil prices and strengthening of the ruble, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.11% to 1,622.32 and RTS increased 3.17% to 865.84.

“The RTS index followed the MICEX index, rebounded in correction, with a 1-day lag. It was possible due to correctional strengthening of the ruble against the U.S. dollar after a serious 5-day downfall,” Vitaly Manzhos, an analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

The Brent oil price increased by over 1% to U.S. $54.00 per barrel as of 6.25 p.m. Moscow time, after the U.S. Department of Energy said commercial oil stocks fell by 4.2 million barrels, while the market expected the figure to contract only by 184,000 barrels.

“The report lead to a rapid increase of about 2% in oil prices and pushed the Russian market up,” Alexander Kostyukov, an analyst at Veles Capital, said.

Common and preferred shares of biggest bank Sberbank increased 2.37% and 3.29%, respectively, due to the rising ruble.

Rising oil price and weak U.S. oil reserve statistics also prompted gas giant Gazprom and oil major Rosneft to grow 2.70% and 2.74%, respectively.

But the firming ruble also lead to sales of metals companies, with steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) losing 3.04% and 1.92%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.37	71.20	8.740
Gazprom	+2.70	138.70	3.625
Norilsk Nickel	+1.39	9359.00	2.525
Lukoil	-0.10	2430.90	2.046
Surgutneftegas prefs	+3.44	36.10	1.907

(60.2231 rubles – U.S. $1)

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