Russian stock market posts early February gains
MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market began February trading on the rise amid gains in Europe after Portugal's successful state bond placement.
The RTS index ended the first day of the month up 1.4% at 1599.52 points, its highest point during the day's trading having been 1601.53 points. The MICEX index was up 1.7% at 1539.36 points, its highest since September 9, which it ended at 1556.46 points.
VTB was up 1.7% on the MICEX-RTS exchange, Gazprom gained 1%, Gazprom 1%, Lukoil 1%, NOVATEK 2.1%, Norilsk Nickel 1.4%, Rosneft 1.1%, Rostelecom 2%, Sberbank of Russia 2.9%, Surgutneftegas 1.4%, and FGC UES 5.7%.
Tatneft was down 0.03% on the day and Surgutneftegas prefs 0.6%.
On the exchange's second tier, OGK-1 rose 7.8%, OGK-2 gained 6.7%, IDGC Holding 5.4%, Inter RAO UES 4.7%, the company group PIK 4.5%, IDGC Center and Volga (RTS:MRKP) 4.5%, IDGC South 4.4%, and Mosenergo 4.3%.
KamAZ lost 3.6%, Irkutskenergo fell 2.3%, AvtoVAZ 1.9%, OGK-3 1.5%, TGK-13 1.1%, and Pharmacy Chain 36.6 1%.
Trading on the main MICEX-RTS market combined to 58.805 billion rubles, with 23.273 billion rubles involved with deals for ordinary Sberbank shares, on the Standard sector to $295.66 million and on the Classica sector to $3.367 million.
