Stocks grow as Russia pledges to withdraw troops from near Ukraine

MOSCOW, Apr 22 (PRIME) -- The stock market increased on Thursday on Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s statement that Russia will withdraw troops from the border with Ukraine, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 1.08% to 3,600.35 and the RTS Index increased 2.57% to 1,501.77.

"The market mood improvement may be attributed to the statement of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the finish of military drills of the units of the Western and Southern districts, which means their return to the permanent bases. He, of course, meant the troops that triggered caused violent reaction in the West," Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

According to Kochetkov, the rest of the news was bad -- the Czech Republic still threatens Russian diplomats with deportation until parity with the embassy in Moscow is reached. The PACE ordered Moscow to free blogger Alexei Navalny until June 7.

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that the external background was vary as the European markets grew moderately but the U.S. stock market futures and the oil prices fell.

Raspadskaya was the gain leader, soaring 7.72% on expectations of a spinoff of the coal assets of Evraz. Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) grew 1.52% on the news that its January-March net profit almost tripled, the analyst said.

TCS Group stopped falling and added 1.01% after announcing a buyback of global depositary receipt (GDRs), she said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+1.02	292.21	20.484
Gazprom	+0.34	231.62	13.345
Norilsk Nickel	+1.71	25742	11.577
Lukoil	+1.33	6025	7.481
Severstal	+2.47	1873	6.401

(76.8198 – U.S. $1)

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