Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Russian stocks in New York rose for a third day, led by energy producers, as the ruble strengthened and Brent crude held above $55 a barrel after rebounding from a two- month low.

Oil company OAO Surgutneftegas jumped 4.1 percent to a four-month high. OAO Gazprom, the state-run natural gas producer, advanced 3.1 percent. The Bloomberg Russia-US Equity Index rose 0.4 percent to 57.94, capping the longest stretch of advances in a month.

The Bloomberg gauge of U.S.-traded Russian stocks has increased 17 percent this year as oil rebounded from a 2009 low and a cease-fire in Ukraine eased concern that new sanctions will further squeeze an economy already forecast to dip into a recession. The dollar-denominated RTS Index, the world’s worst- performing gauge last year, has risen 11 percent in 2015 and trades at 5.9 times projected 12-month earnings, compared with a multiple of 11.9 for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

“The Russian market has advanced this year, but it is still really cheap,” Andrey Shenk, an analyst at Alfa Capital in Moscow, said by phone Tuesday. “The factors that weigh on Russia and give it a discount -- oil prices and geopolitical risk -- are still there, but there hasn’t been any dramatically bad news, which makes Russia more appealing.”

Brent crude, the oil grade traders use to price Russia’s main export blend, slipped for the first time in three days, dropping 81 cents to $55.11 a barrel. It is still trading 18 percent above this year’s low of $46.59 in January. The ruble, which plunged 46 percent in 2014, strengthened 1.8 percent, pushing its advance this year to 5.2 percent.

Tax Deadline

“Even though the ruble is strengthening and the RTS is rising, there is no clear understanding of where oil prices are going,” Sergei Pigarev, an analyst at Rye, Man Gor in Moscow, said by phone from Moscow Tuesday. “Chances are high that Russian stocks will reverse their gains once oil starts falling.”

Russian companies are due to pay about 1.3 trillion rubles ($22.5 billion) in taxes this month, with the largest portion due Wednesday, according to a Bloomberg survey of five economists. They must pay in the local currency, and exporters typically convert their foreign exchange into rubles.

Surgut jumped to $6.12. Gazprom rose to $4.71.

Lenta Ltd., a Russian hypermarket operator, gained 5 percent to $6.98 in London, the biggest advance in two weeks, after it raised $225 million selling new shares. The Moscow- traded stock has rallied 12 percent in 2015, compared with a 16 percent gain for the Micex index.

‘Excessively Punished’

Qiwi Plc., the Russian electronic-payment processor that runs a service similar to PayPal, added 3.7 percent to $22.45. Yandex NV, Russia’s largest search engine, gained 3.6 percent to $15.27, the biggest advance in five weeks.

The Market Vectors Russia ETF, the biggest U.S. exchange- traded fund that tracks the nation’s stocks, added 2.6 percent to $17.18. Futures of the dollar-denominated RTS Index gained 0.9 percent to 87,000 in U.S. hours. United Co. Rusal advanced 2.6 percent to HK$5.08 at 10:31 a.m. in Hong Kong, heading for the largest increase since Feb. 6.

“There is a feeling that Russia was excessively punished,” Aleksei Belkin, the chief investment officer at Kapital Asset Management LLC, said by phone from Moscow Tuesday. “The fact that the Ukraine cease-fire is holding and the rout in oil prices has stopped means there might be more optimism about Russian assets.”