Stocks rise as VTB promises higher dividends, Mechel debt hopes

MOSCOW, Sep 4 (PRIME) -- The Russian stocks grew on Wednesday supported by rising oil prices, depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and the news that VTB Bank may resume paying half of its net profit in dividends and Sberbank may restructure Mechel’s debt, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 0.69% to 2,793.36 and the RTS increased 2.09% to 1,330.77.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that VTB Bank gained 9.46% to 0.04291 rubles after its CEO Andrei Kostin said that it planned to return to paying 50% of the net profit in dividends already in the payout for 2019.

Sberbank’s Deputy CEO Anatoly Popov said that the bank hoped to agree to restructure debts of metals and mining company Mechel until the end of 2019, and the metals company gained 4.55% to 63.21 rubles, Kochetkov said.

“The background was positive during the day,” Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

The oil prices grew, the European stocks were also in the green zone, while estimates for business activity in the services sector in Germany and in the Eurozone were improved, Kozhukhova said.

Yaroslav Kabakov, director for strategies at investment company Finam, said that the U.S. dollar weakened providing support to the commodity sector and emerging markets.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Surgutneftegas	-0.30	35.395	12.910
Sberbank	+1.38	227.10	9.419
Surgutneftegas prefs	+0.01	38.06	9.348
VTB	+9.46	0.04291	7.232
Gazprom	+1.16	233.71	6.427

(66.9072 rubles – U.S. $1)

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