Russian stock market posts gains, telecoms perform well
MOSCOW. Aug 20 (Interfax) - The Russian stock market posted gains on Thursday following world markets and the release of U.S. production stats. The MICEX was able to hold above 1,060 points during today's session.
Benchmark stocks on the MICEX Stock Exchange went up by 2.78% to 1,062.87 points while the RTS Index increased by 2.51% to 1,018.5 points.
The loss in RTS futures came to 13 points against the base assets, indicating the slightly negative mood among investors.
Posting gains were Lukoil , up 5.8% on the MICEX and 5.4% on the RTS, Rosneft - 5% and 3.2%, Surgutneftegas - 2.7% on the MICEX, Tatneft - 3.9% and Gazprom Neft - 3.5%.
Other advancers were Gazprom , up 3.9% on the MICEX, VTB - 0.7%, MMC Norilsk Nickel - 1.5%, Sberbank - 1.5% on the MICEX Stock Exchange and 4.2% on the RTS and Polyus Gold - 0.6%.
Posting gains among second tier stocks were Uralsvyazinform , up 14% for common shares and 6.5% in prefs, Sibirtelecom - 10.2%, VolgaTelecom - 7.4% and North-West Telecom - 7.1%
Posting losses were Irkutskenergo , down 4.6%, Yakutskenergo - 5.9% and OGK-4 - 1.6%
Total Classic RTS Trading on Thursday came to $4.95 million, RTS Standard - $205.92 million and MICEX Stock Exchange turnover - 54.88 billion rubles, led by Sberbank with 19.42 billion rubles in common share trades.