Russian stocks rise together with foreign bourses, metals sector

MOSCOW, Jul 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Monday thanks to the positive impact coming from foreign bourses, steady oil prices and rising metals stocks, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.42% to 3,750.10 and the RTS increased 0.42% to 1,602.53.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, said that the background for the Russian market was unfavorable at the beginning of the day, as the foreign bourses were under the pressure of the restrictions that China imposed on hi-tech companies and other sectors. Also, a high-level meeting of the U.S. and Chinese officials ended with both sides throwing criticisms at each other.

“In spite of such an unfavorable situation at the beginning of the day, the global stock indicators and oil prices grew after the start of our trade, causing an active upward rebound in our shares. As a result, the Russian indices grew solidly, and ended the day on this high note. The ruble also grew slightly against the U.S. dollar, but kept moderate losses against the euro against the background of growth of the European currency on the external market,” Babin said.

“The Russian stock market has started the day with a fall, but switched into the green zone after that largely due to the securities of the metals and mining sector. The oil price slightly regained its losses. The commercial meals largely rose, and a fall of the European indices did not impress the national investors,” Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker.

The consumer sector also supported the national market. Agricultural holding Rusagro was among the leaders of the sector gaining 3.95% to 1,090 rubles on the news that the company’s revenue increased by 45% to 57.3 billion rubles in April–June, Kochetkov said.

Retailer Lenta shrank by 2.18% to 233.70 rubles as the company’s profit fell by 42.7% to 5.363 billion rubles in January–June, while the revenue gained only 0.5% to 218.088 billion rubles, Kochetkov added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.88	301.96	8.978
Gazprom	+0.04	279.61	7.010
Lukoil	-1.34	6347.50	3.842
Yandex	-0.39	5176.00	3.116
Norilsk Nickel	+0.11	25018.00	2.831

(73.7663 rubles – U.S. $1)

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