AGL 38.59 Increased By ▲ 1.02 (2.71%)
AIRLINK 131.95 Decreased By ▼ -0.55 (-0.42%)
BOP 5.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.71%)
CNERGY 3.83 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (1.59%)
DCL 8.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-1.58%)
DFML 40.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.23 (-0.56%)
DGKC 88.80 Decreased By ▼ -1.36 (-1.51%)
FCCL 35.30 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (0.63%)
FFBL 66.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.08%)
FFL 10.55 Increased By ▲ 0.40 (3.94%)
HUBC 109.55 Increased By ▲ 3.15 (2.96%)
HUMNL 14.66 Increased By ▲ 1.26 (9.4%)
KEL 4.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.62%)
KOSM 7.08 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (3.36%)
MLCF 42.65 Increased By ▲ 0.85 (2.03%)
NBP 59.50 Increased By ▲ 0.92 (1.57%)
OGDC 184.05 Increased By ▲ 2.80 (1.54%)
PAEL 25.69 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.04%)
PIBTL 5.91 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.37%)
PPL 147.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.50 (-0.34%)
PRL 23.55 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (1.42%)
PTC 16.43 Increased By ▲ 1.19 (7.81%)
SEARL 69.33 Increased By ▲ 0.54 (0.78%)
TELE 7.25 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.14%)
TOMCL 36.13 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.36%)
TPLP 7.58 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (2.43%)
TREET 14.19 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.35%)
TRG 50.90 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.1%)
UNITY 26.88 Increased By ▲ 0.48 (1.82%)
WTL 1.22 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.83%)
BR100 9,818 Increased By 50.7 (0.52%)
BR30 29,825 Increased By 425.1 (1.45%)
KSE100 92,348 Increased By 410.3 (0.45%)
KSE30 28,817 Increased By 73 (0.25%)

MOSCOW: Russia’s benchmark MOEX stock index climbed to its highest in more than three months on Friday, as investors bet on other companies following Gazprom’s lead in recommending dividends, while the weakened towards 61 against the dollar and euro.

Gas giant Gazprom’s board this week recommended the payment of 51.03 roubles ($0.8456) per ordinary share in dividends on the first half of 2022, sending the company’s shares up around 25% and buoying Russian indexes.

“Investors seem to have cheered up and hopes that the dividend idea is alive and that other Russian companies will join with Gazprom are gradually moving the market upwards,” said Alexander Arutyunyan, chief economist at Russ-Invest.

By 1532 GMT, the rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.9% higher at 2,467.4 points, its strongest mark since May 18. The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.1% to 1,278.2 points, slipping slightly from a near two-month high.

“Investors may want to cash in ahead of the weekend, though we still believe that the iMOEX remains in a growing trend,” said BCS Global Markets in a note.

STEADY ROUBLE

The rouble has hovered near 60 to the dollar and euro for the past several weeks, but fell towards 61 ahead of the weekend.

The rouble was 0.9% weaker against the dollar at 60.84 and had lost 1.6% to trade at 60.87 versus the euro.

Promsvyazbank analysts said the rouble would remain in the 60-61 range against the dollar on Friday.

Volatility has subsided since it hit a record low of 121.53 per dollar in Moscow trade in March, soon after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. It then rallied to its strongest in seven years of 50.01 per dollar in June. So far this year, the rouble has been the world’s best-performing currency, buoyed by emergency capital controls rolled out by the central bank in a bid to halt a mass sell-off. This helped to avoid an economic meltdown that many had predicted.

However, the central bank said Russian banks had lost a combined 1.5 trillion roubles ($24.86 billion) in the first six months of 2022, disclosing banking sector earnings on Friday for the first time since February.

Comments

Comments are closed.