Russian financial markets: ruble strengthens slightly, stocks gain led by Magnit
MOSCOW. Oct 25 (Interfax) - The ruble was slightly higher against the dollar and euro in early trading on the Moscow Exchange on Wednesday morning and Russian equities were gaining amid a favorable situation on global capital markets and higher oil prices. Magnit bounced back following three days of steep declines.
The dollar was down 0.13% to 57.548 rubles/$1 as of 11:15 a.m. and the euro was down 0.17% at 67.71 rubles/EUR1, following a 2% increase in the price of Brent crude oil the day before (Brent gained another 0.12% to $58.4 per barrel on Wednesday morning).
The MICEX stock index was up 0.3% to 2068.02 points as of 11:15 a.m. and the RTS was up 0.44% to 1131.95.
Magnit (+3.9%) corrected higher after declining in the three previous sessions following publication of weak Q3 earnings.
There were also advances for Pharmacy Chain 36.6 (+1.4%), Raspadskaya (+0.9%), Mobile TeleSystems (+0.9%), Lukoil (+0.7%), RusHydro (+0.7%), Sberbank (+0.6% for preferred and +1% for ordinary shares), Aeroflot (+0.3%), Moscow Exchange (+0.3%) and VTB (+0.07%).
Among decliners, Bank Otkritie (-2.6%), Alrosa (-0.8%), Norilsk Nickel (-0.8%), Surgutneftegas (-0.5%), Rosneft ( (-0.2%) and Gazprom (-0.07%).