Russian stocks rise supported by oil price, Chinese cbank’s measures

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Tuesday supported by the Chinese central bank promises to prop up the economy, which pushed oil prices and the ruble up, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 1.47% to 1,658.13 and RTS increased 4.65% to 758.46.

The Brent oil price, main driver for the Russian market, rose by 1.613% to U.S. $43.39 as of 6.51 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange and the ruble also firmed.

“Despite excessive supply on the world’s oil markets, the oil price was supported by the news that the Chinese central bank cut interest rates and regulatory ratios for banks’ reserves from Wednesday,” Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Finam, said.

The RTS index outperformed the MICEX index as the ruble grew against the U.S. dollar.

“After the yesterday’s slump, the market’s pendulum swung back. We are facing a correctional rebound of local indices that happened with support of the external background,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

Common and preferred shares of biggest bank Sberbank and common shares of second biggest bank VTB looked stronger than the market and increased by 3.30% to 70.79 rubles, 3.05% to 51.36 rubles and 5.23% to 0.07 rubles, respectively, reacting to the ruble rise.

Oil companies Rosneft and Surgutneftegas grew 3.59% to 235.40 rubles and 4.46% to 33.16 rubles, respectively, reacting to the oil price increase.

The stronger ruble hit non-oil exporting companies with fertilizer makers Acron and PhosAgro and metals companies Norilsk Nickel and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) falling 4.47% to 2,758 rubles, 2.58% to 2,903 rubles, 1.41% to 10,071 rubles and 3.20% to 79.75 rubles, respectively.

Fertilizer maker Uralkali lost only 0.10% to 203.30 rubles after the company’s board of directors approved another, $1.32 billion share buyback at $3.2.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.30	70.79	10.248
Gazprom	+3.73	140.40	6.158
Lukoil	+1.45	2381.00	3.233
Norilsk Nickel	-1.41	10071.00	2.309
Uralkali	-0.10	203.30	1.936

(70.7465 rubles – U.S. $1)

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