Stocks close mixed on favorable environment, US–China reports

MOSCOW, Nov 25 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks closed mixed on Monday supported by a favorable external background as the foreign bourses rose on a positive news flow from the U.S.–China trade negotiations, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.26% to 2,955.32 and the RTS eased 0.05% to 1,454.63.

“The external background was moderately positive during the day. The oil prices are stable and barely changed their positions…while trade on the European bourses was moderately optimistic,” Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

The U.S. trading session also started with an increase of about 0.4–0.9% in all three indices led by the hi-tech sector, she said.

“The markets were in an upbeat mood following the reports of Chinese media that the countries were ‘very close’ to signing the first stage of the trade agreement. Besides that, China’s readiness to speed up implementation of regulations for protection and control of intellectual property rights, one of the stumbling blocks in the trade negotiations, was not left without attention,” Kozhukhova said.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the reports about new U.S. restrictions against the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline could have become a negative factor for the Russian market.

“However, the project is at its final stage and it is very unlikely that something may interfere. Correspondingly, the shares of Gazprom ignored the news and stayed in the green zone,” Kochetkov said.

Gazprom gained 1.27% to 255.20 rubles.

Kochetkov also said that fertilizer producer PhosAgro gained 0.58% to 2,432 rubles on a report that its net profit grew 25.2% on the year to 9.762 billion rubles in July–September.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	+1.27	255.20	12.164
Sberbank	-0.06	237.98	4.183
Norilsk Nickel	-0.76	17344.00	2.610
Lukoil	-0.28	6103.00	2.407
MTS	+1.10	308.50	2.162

(63.7101 rubles – U.S. $1)

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