Stocks rise on higher oil, Fri visit of Merkel, Hollande to Moscow

MOSCOW, Feb 5 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks rose on Thursday majorly supported by the Brent positive dynamics and in anticipation of a Friday visit of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s President Francois Hollande to Moscow to discuss the Ukrainian conflict issues, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 2.42% to 1,696.06 and the RTS increased 4.40% to 804.50.

“The rebound was caused by the continuing reversal of oil quotations, which rose 2.23% during the day,” Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex’ analytical department, said.

The Brent oil price consolidated around U.S. $56.5 per barrel by the end of the Moscow Exchange’s trading session.

Investors were also encouraged by the news that Merkel and Hollande will visit Kiev on Thursday and Moscow on Friday to propose new initiatives to settle the Ukrainian military conflict, Sofiya Kirsanova, analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said.

Magnit fell 1.02% on the news that Lavreno Limited controlled by Sergei Galitsky, Magnit’s major shareholder, sold 1 million shares at 9,823 rubles per paper, Kirsanova said.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Thursday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.24	62.41	10.647
Gazprom	+3.51	147.60	6.701
Lukoil	+3.00	2996.00	6.183
Magnit	-1.02	10235.00	3.762
Norilsk Nickel	+3.26	11100.00	3.661

(65.4470 rubles – U.S. $1)

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