Moscow – The Russian stock market posted strong gains on Feb. 6 as oil prices continued to climb and in anticipation of progress at talks between Russia and the EU on Ukraine.
The MICEX stock index closed up 3.5 percent at 1755.45, its highest since the end of April 2011. The RTS index rose 2.7 percent to 826.4.
The MICEX rose 6.5 percent in the week and the RTS gained 12.1 percent.
Ruble-priced advancers on the Moscow Exchange (on Feb. 6 included VTB (MOEX: VTBR) (+0.6 percent), Gazprom (+2.7 percent), Gazprom Neft (+1.1 percent), Lukoil (+4.1 percent), Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (+2.3 percent), Novatek (+4.4 percent), MMC Norilsk Nickel (+2.7 percent), Rosneft (+4 percent), Rostelecom (+2.3 percent), Sberbank (+3 percent), Surgutneftegas (+4.1 percent), Tatneft (+5.1 percent, +6 percent prefs) and FGC UES (+4.7 percent).
Magnit soared 8.2 percent following yesterday’s correction. Other second-tier advancers included UC Rusal (RDRs, +9.4 percent), MegaFon (+9 percent), Severstal (+5.7 percent) and Sollers (+4.6 percent). There were losses for Mechel (-3 percent, -3.3 percent prefs), VSMPO-Avisma (-3.3 percent), Pharmacy Chain 36.6 (-0.7 percent) and Yandex (-0.6 percent).
Combined trading volume on the main Moscow Exchange market was 54.222 billion rubles, of which 11.494 billion rubles in Sberbank ordinary shares.
