Russian stocks rise supported by ruble’s strengthening

MOSCOW, Jul 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Monday because the effective strengthening of the ruble provided support to the national indices, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.86% to 2.856.76 and the RTS increased 1.75% to 993.19.

“The Russian stock market was in the green zone and again the MOEX Russia Index hit a record since February 2022. The MOEX Russia Index rose and the RTS index increased in stabilization in reaction to the end of ruble’s devaluation,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

The Russian currency bounced off from the lows of the previous week, she said.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, said that the ruble tried to develop an upward correction after stabilizing over the two previous trade sessions. The currency tried to regain some ground after the previous several weeks because there were no negative news and because of the improvements on the oil market that could raise Russia’s export revenue and the inflow of foreign currency to the country soon, Babin said.

Director of managing company Pervaya’s stock market department Anton Kravchenko also said that the ruble’s strengthening was the main driver for the Russian market. The market tries to grow time and time again, and the shares of some companies like oil company Bashneft and real estate developer LSR Group even experienced purchases right after their dividend cut-offs. Kozhukhova pointed out that this was a proof that the general market sentiment was positive.

Freedom Finance Global’s analyst Vladimir Chernov said that the shares of gold producer Polyus gained 2.64% to 10,995 rubles following the announcement of a buyback of up to 29.99% of the capital at a price of 14,200 rubles per share, meaning a premium of 22.5% to the current price.

Precious metals producer Polymetal will finish re-domiciliation to Kazakhstan no earlier than at the end of this month, and its shares will trade on the London Stock Exchange at least until July 31. The company increased by 2.99% to 547.80 rubles, Chernov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Polyus	+2.64	10995.00	33.177
Sberbank	+1.49	247.30	12.728
Lukoil	-0.06	5436.00	5.519
Magnit	+3.02	5486.00	3.947
Gazprom	+0.82	167.70	2.978

(91.6879 rubles – U.S. $1)

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