2 Dec 2009 19:50

Russian stock market consolidates, MICEX edges up

MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market consolidated on Wednesday, with benchmark shares moving either way depending what signals they received from the West.

The MICEX index rose 0.49% to 1325.76 while the RTS fell 0.02% to 1415.98. Benchmark stocks moved 0.3%-3.4% either way.

The MICEX saw gains for MMC Norilsk Nickel (+3.4%), VTB (+0.3%), Rosneft (RTS; ROSN) (+1%), Gazprom Neft (+1.6%), Sberbank (+0.4%) and Polyus Gold (+1.7%), the latter as gold prices hit new all-time highs.

Sberbank prefs rose 2.1% to a new year-high of 57.39 rubles.

There were drops for Gazprom (-0.7%), Rostelecom (-2.7%), Surgutneftegas (-0.3%) and Tatneft (-1%).

Fertilizer producer Acron , a second-tier stock, rose 1% after posting a fairly good IFRS earnings report for Q3 209.

RTS Classic Market volume was $6.72 million, RTS Standard turnover reached $401.251 million and MICEX volume came to 63.115 billion rubles, led by Sberbank with 18.417 billion rubles.