Russian stocks rise supported by oil prices, favorable environment

MOSCOW, Jan 23 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks grew on Wednesday supported by higher oil prices and a favorable external news flow, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.92% to 2,491.49 and the RTS increased 1.43% to 1,186.51.

“The optimistic investor mood on the national market was again connected with the growing oil price, which tried to break through U.S. $62 per barrel, and promises of the Chinese authorities to stimulate the country’s economy,” Andrei Kochetkov of Otkritie Broker said.

“In addition to that, power producers played an important role on the market today. Their growth was caused by new discussions of consumption norms, which may have an impact on their profits.”

Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System (FGC UES) gained 2.45%, federal power grid holding Rosseti rose 3.39%, and power utility Wholesale Generating Company-2 (WGC-2) increased by 2.29%.

“The global trade floors experienced traded mixed today. Nevertheless, the corporate reports released by IBM and Procter & Gamble showed that financial results of the companies turned out to be better than expected. This gives hope that a positive investor mood would prevail at the U.S. stock market,” Anastasia Sosnova, investment company Freedom Finance’s analyst, said.

Yevgeny Koryukhin, Alor Broker’s analyst, said that top bank Sberbank outperformed the market due to a continuous inflow of money of foreign investors. “This is a good signal for the market in general, and investors should hold the paper until its price rises to 215 rubles,” he said.

Sberbank gained 1.18% on Wednesday.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.18	210.40	16.774
Lukoil	+0.38	5205.50	3.083
Magnit	+2.38	4300.00	2.371
Gazprom	+0.88	159.90	2.319
Rosseti	+3.39	0.9719	2.067

(66.5499 rubles – U.S. $1)

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