Talks with Iran back oil prices, ruble, Russian stocks

MOSCOW, Feb 17 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks increased on Wednesday on the background of stronger oil prices, ruble, E.U. stocks and U.S. stock index futures, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.94% to 1,770.31 and the RTS increased 3.84% to 735.81.

“The Russian market rose thanks to improvement in external conditions. Apart from growing U.S. stock index futures and a rise on major E.U. stock markets, the situation on the oil market improved,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

“Market participants hope that although Iran said earlier it plans to boost oil exports by almost 50% after sanctions are lifted, the country will change its plans and be aligned with other market participants, namely Russia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” Sofya Kirsanova said.

A source close to negotiations of energy ministers of Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and Qatar told PRIME that Iran agreed to keep its oil output at January levels. Oil prices and the Russian ruble surged of the back of the news.

The growth of the dollar-denominated RTS was accelerated by a stronger ruble.

Major truck producer Kamaz fell 1.14% to 34.7 rubles, still under pressure from a forecast of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that Russian car sales are likely to fall 14% in 2016, Andrei Kochetkov, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

Top lender Sberbank rose 2.79% to 99.2 rubles, supported by the national currency.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+2.79	99.20	11.240
Gazprom	+0.92	137.10	4.276
Magnit	+1.01	10000.00	2.468
Lukoil	+0.69	2467.00	2.117
Norilsk Nickel	+1.73	8633.00	2.031

(76.2450 rubles – U.S. $1)

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