The Russian stock market rose Friday on investor hopes that weak U.S. labor market data will prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to slow down the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) program and on the back of good economic growth news from the E.U., analysts said.
The MICEX grew 1.19% to 1,496.18, and the RTS went up 1.63% to 1,343.20.
“The U.S. floors opened with an upward gap because … traders believe that the Federal Reserve System will taper the QE3 more slowly if it sees that the labor market recovery is facing difficulties, and this hope boosted the Russian market in the morning,” Veles Capital senior analyst Airat Khalikov said.
“In the middle of the day the Russian market was supported by the euro zone economic growth in October–December.”
The euro zone gross domestic product grew 1.1% supporting investor hopes for the European economic recovery, Ivan Fomenko, director of Absolut Bank’s trust management department, said.
Even the oil and gas sector joined the overall market rise despite the oil price decrease as there was no major gloomy local news, he said.
The central bank said it maintained its key REPO rate, but it had no impact on the banking sector. “Banks largely depend on the ruble rate because they fear that clients will withdraw their ruble-denominated deposits. The importance of the refinancing rate falls once compared with this,” Khalikov said.
Dixy’s report of strong revenue in January spurred the growth of shares across the entire retail sector, Fomenko said.
Dixy rose 0.68% to 329.99 rubles.