Trump–Jinping truce, Russia–Saudi Arabia oil talks push stocks up

MOSCOW, Dec 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks jumped on Monday in line with other global bourses after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to suspend the trade war, while oil prices rose as Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed adherence to the oil output reduction deal, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index rose 2.04% to 2,441.19 and the RTS increased 2.49% to 1,154.18.

“The G20 summit held in Argentina brought very positive news for the stock markets. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to freeze the trade war, albeit temporarily. They agreed to suspend mutual increases of import duties until the end of the first quarter of 2019…According to the Chinese foreign minister, the leaders of the U.S. and China plan to intensify negotiations on complete lifting of all import duties they introduced recently,” Vasily Oleinik, investment company Finam’s analyst, said.

The other major positive impact came from the oil market, Oleinik said.

The Brent oil price rose 3.584% to U.S. $61.67 per barrel as of 5.54 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

“Negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman cleared the issue about prolongation of the oil output reduction deal, which had a positive impact on its prices. Oil companies made a major contribution to the increase of national stocks,” Otkritie Broker’s analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Markit’s release of Russia’s Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), which grew to 52.6 in November from 51.3 in October, also supported trade on the Russian market, Kochetkov added.

Ivan Marchena, analyst at Forex Club group of companies, said that shares of gas giant Gazprom outperformed the market and grew 2.55% as the management recommended that the board of directors raise final dividends for 2018 as compared with dividends paid for 2017.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+3.25	200.30	16.386
Lukoil	+4.14	5098.50	7.092
Gazprom	+2.55	165.40	6.509
Rosneft	+2.58	434.00	2.907
Norilsk Nickel	+0.62	12817.00	1.699

(66.5335 rubles – U.S. $1)

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