Stocks firm in mixed trade on rising oil price, foreign floors

MOSCOW, Apr 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market edged up on Tuesday, following upward oil price and foreign market trends after a generally mixed trading session, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.26% to 2,527.77, and the RTS index increased 0.16% to 1,216.20.

“A comparatively calm external background did not prevent the domestic market from demonstrating a small increase. But this growth was unstable, and the index of the Moscow Exchange fell to the negative zone during the day. A weak ruble helped the securities of exporters,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Raiffeisen Capital analyst Mikhail Kuzin said that the foreign markets were optimistic as investors were convinced by the statistics that the U.S. and China’s economies were to rise.

According to Kochetkov, signing of a binding agreement to buy a 41.9% stake in retailer Lenta by Severgroup owned by Alexei Mordashov from Luna Inc was the key event. “It’s hard to qualify this event from the point of view of influence on the business of Lenta but probably, the purchase represents an asset diversification strategy.” Lenta depositary receipts’ price rose 4.32%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.24	218.23	10.744
Gazprom	+0.3	155	4.793
Lukoil	+0.83	5958	3.428
Norilsk Nickel	+1.19	14160	2.612
Rosneft	-0.41	418	1.034

(65.4176 rubles – U.S. $1)

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