Sberbank leads Russian stocks in upward correction
MOSCOW. Sept 3 (Interfax) - Russian stocks corrected upward on Thursday, but mixed U.S. economic data kept the MICEX index from topping the 1,100-point mark. Sberbank Russia and Polyus Gold led the market.
The MICEX index rose 1.6% to close at 1,093.72 points and the RTS index was up 2% to 1,074.05.
A technical glitch forced MICEX to shut down for 90 minutes during the session.
RTS futures fell to 15.6 points below fair value, indicating moderately negative investor sentiment.
Sberbank shares gained 8% to a three-month high of 53.0 rubles on MICEX, and rose 7.5% to $1.65 on the RTS. Investors may be speculating Russia's biggest bank is preparing a supplementary share issue.
Polyus Gold shot up 8.2% on higher gold prices (up 0.7% to $985 per oz).
Other advancers include VTB - up 0.7% on MICEX, MMC Norilsk Nickel - up 0.4%, Rosneft - up 1.5% and Gazprom Neft - up 0.5%.
Decliners included Gazprom - down 0.5%, Lukoil - down 0.4%, Surgutneftegas - down 0.1% and Tatneft - down 0.1%.
In the second tier, Mechel coal and steel group gained 8.2%, Far Eastern Energy Company was up 7.4%, Sollers - up 6.7%, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) - up 5% and Kuzbassenergo - up 4.4%.
The telecoms suffered from profit taking: Uralsvyazinform ordinary shares lost 3.7% and preferred shares were down 8.5%, North-West Telecom was down 6.5% and 2.2% respectively, Dalsvyaz fell 4% and Sibirtelecom shed 2%.
Volume totaled $14.35 million on the RTS classic section, $160.1 million on the RTS Standard and 60.4 billion rubles on MICEX, led by Sberbank ordinary shares with 32.3 billion rubles.
RTS$#&: DVEC, ENCO, ESPK, GAZP, GMKN, KZBE, LKOH, MTLR, MTSS, PLZL, ROSN, SBER, SIBN, SNGS, SPTL, SVAV, TATN, URSI, VTBR