Russian stocks rise supported by global anti-coronavirus optimism

MOSCOW, Nov 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged up on Monday backed with a positive foreign background with global stock exchanges and crude prices rising on anti-coronavirus vaccine news, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 1.80% to 3,079.74 and the RTS increased 3.33% to 1,268.61.

“The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS index stayed deeply in the positive territory thanks to global optimism… and the RTS was additionally supported by the strengthening ruble. The MOEX Oil and Gas index grew most of all,” Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The major U.S. benchmarks, except for the hi-tech NASDAQ, edged up 0.5–1.1% at the beginning of their trading session encouraged by successful results of anti-coronavirus vaccine trials by Moderna, and the Brent oil price jumped over 3.5%, she also said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that agricultural holding Rusagro reported almost tripling of the IFRS net profit to 19 billion rubles in January–September, which pushed the stock up by 4.17%.

Kozhukhova said that multi-industry holding Sistema underperformed falling 2.14% in downward correction following a hike seen in the previous session.

Gold producers Polyus and Polymetal International were also among the biggest losers thanks to gold prices consolidating below U.S. $1,900 per ounce, they lost 2.06% and 0.34%, respectively.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.06	248	26.738
Gazprom	+2.77	185.3	15.481
Lukoil	+0.96	4926	6.566
Rosneft	+2.43	429.55	5.357
Norilsk Nickel	+1.02	20694	4.762

(77.3262 rubles – U.S. $1)

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