Stocks rise supported by oil prices, shrug off North Korea crisis

MOSCOW, Sep 6 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Wednesday supported by growing oil prices, which outweighed geopolitical risks around the situation with North Korea, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.53% to 2,014.60 and the RTS also increased 0.53% to 1,106.70.

“The majority of Asian floors was in the red zone today thanks to pressure from escalation of geopolitical tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Coordination of new weapon shipments to Japan and South Korea by U.S. President Donald Trump caused a new barrage of threats from North Korea,” Sofya Kirsanova, an analyst at managing company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

“At the same time, the national market was supported by higher oil prices. The prices have been rising for two days in a row as investors are waiting for consequences of a new powerful hurricane Irma in the Gulf of Mexico, which is to replace the devastating Harvey Hurricane in several days.”

The Brent oil price gained 1.24% per barrel as of 6.18 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that the general sentiment at the Russian stock market was positive. Steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) jumped 7.61% to 40.89 rubles after a secondary public offering, which raises free float and allows the company to be listed with the MSCI Russia index, he said.

A financial source told PRIME that Mintha Holding Limited of MMK core owner Viktor Rashnikov sold a 3% interest in the steelmaker on the market for 36.7 rubles per security.

Kochetkov also said that shares of multi-industry holding Sistema continued their rally and gained 3.30% to 14.095 rubles supported by President Vladimir Putin’s Tuesday statement about a possibility of an amicable deal with oil major Rosneft in a 170.6 billion ruble suit.

Gas giant Gazprom gained 0.98% to 117.14 rubles supported by the news flow coming from the Eastern Economic Forum, he added.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.55	183.12	6.113
MMK	+7.61	40.89	3.657
Gazprom	+0.98	117.14	2.863
Norilsk Nickel	+1.37	9825.00	2.567
Lukoil	+1.23	2919.00	2.193

(57.8503 rubles – U.S. $1)

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