23 Mar 2012 19:09

Russian stock market rebounds on Friday

MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market's decline on Europe's heels early in the day on Friday transformed into growth by evening as speculators closed their short position at the end of a negative week.

By the end of Friday's trade, the MICEX stock index had edged up by 0.75% to 1540.97 points, while the RTS had grown by 0.9% to 1668.41 points. The majority of benchmark stocks on the MICEX-RTS stock exchange had increased by up to 2.2%, led by Transneft (+2.2%).

Other market gainers included NOVATEK (+1.5%), VTB (+1.2%), Gazprom (+0.5%), Lukoil (+0.8%), Polyus Gold (+0.3%), Rosneft (+0.6%), Rostelecom (+0.8%), Sberbank of Russia (+1.7%), Surgutneftegas (+0.6%) and Tatneft (+1.4%).