Stocks increase on high oil prices, robust foreign markets

MOSCOW, May 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market grew on Thursday as oil prices remained close to record highs and foreign markets mainly grew, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.47% to 2,312.92 and the RTS index grew 3.28% to 1,179.63.

“The key driver of the local market is oil, which remains near a new maximum for 3.5 years though it corrected slightly after morning purchases,” Igor Kovalyov, analyst at InstaForex, said.

Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that predominant growth of the Asian markets, a neutral trading session in Europe and a rise of the U.S. S&P 500 futures also contributed to an increase of Russian stocks.

Kovalyov said that Sberbank was the market leader after reporting a 27.3% net profit rise under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Inter RAO rose 0.46% on the news that Inter RAO Capital can buy a 4.92% stake in the energy company from RusHydro.

ALROSA fell 2.02% after reporting a 27.6% fall in sales in monthly terms in April, he said.

Raspadskaya dropped 2.86% after emergency services reported a fire in the mine, analysts said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.09	233.7	16.721
Lukoil	+1.32	4235	3.840
Norilsk Nickel	-3.28	10730	3.739
Gazprom	+0.62	146.38	3.554
Rosneft	+0.67	395.7	1.500

(63.0066 rubles – U.S. $1)

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