OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 December 2008 was announced, that for the week of December 22 – December 26, 2008 the Russian stock market experienced an upturn in prices. The RTS Index (RTSI) went up to 644,47 points (1,62%) from 634,22 points as of December 19, 2008. By the end of the week the RTS Index was 2,15% lower than a month ago (658,63 points as of November 26, 2008) and 71,77% lower than a year ago (2283,08 points as of December 26, 2007).

Out of 50 RTSI constituents 16 were pushing the Index upwards (plus 19,68 points overall), while 20 securities were pulling it downwards (minus 9,43 points).

The price for 14 securities remained unchanged. Most of the positive impact was coming from Surgutneftegas ordinary shares (plus 7,09  points), OJSC "OC "Rosneft" ordinary shares (plus 4,69 points) and OJSC Uralkali ordinary shares (plus 2,11 points). The largest negative contributors were ordinary shares of JSC "RusHydro" (minus 2,17  points) and Gazprom ordinary shares (minus 1,64 points).

Over 50% of the RTSI total capitalization is concentrated in the oil and gas sector. The other large-weight sectors were finance (15,32%) and metallurgy (12,65%). On the sector level the largest positive contributor was the oil & gas sector (plus 9,58  points overall), followed by the metals & mining sector (plus 3,03  points in total) and the chemicals sector (plus 1,34 points overall).

RTSI Futures Contracts

The weekly trading volume in the RTSI derivatives amounted to 39,3 bln. roubles or 1,1 mln. contracts. Futures contracts on the RTS Index remain the most liquid instrument on the Russian derivatives market, making up 67,63% of the total FORTS turnover (Futures and Options on RTS) in cash terms.

Over the week, the RTSI gained 1,62%, with the prices of March and June contracts going up by 2,85% and 2,92% respectively.

Last week the RTSI-linked futures were mostly trading below the spot. By the end of the period under review backwardation for March and June contracts stood at 17,42 points and 12,87 points accordingly.

The open interest in the RTSI futures grew by 3,45% over the week. Second-tier stocks

 For the week of December 22 – December 26, 2008 the second-tier stocks demonstrated a positive trend. The RTS-2 Index showed a growth of 2,21% to 558,96 points (546,89 points as of December 19, 2008). At the end of the week the RTS-2 Index was 2,30% higher than a month ago (546,4 points as of November 26th, 2008) and 78,34% lower than a year ago (2581,08 points as of December 26, 2007). 21 constituents out of 75 stocks on the basis of which the RTS-2 Index is calculated had a positive impact on its dynamics (plus 20,03 points overall).

However, 23 instruments were offsetting this impact (minus 7,95 points). The price for 31 securities remained unchanged.

Most of the positive impact was from growing prices for ordinary shares of JSC "Salavatnefteorgsintez" (plus 4,12 points),  Bashneft  ordinary shares (plus 3,03 points) and ordinary shares of JSC "INTER RAO UES" (plus 2,83 points).

The negative impact was mainly due to the falling prices for ordinary shares of JSC "С hTRP" (minus  0,84 points), CAZ ordinary shares (minus 0,82 points) and RITEK  ordinary shares (minus 0,80 points).

Power industry (21,9%) had the largest weight in the RTS-2 Index, followed by consumer goods & retail (12,6%) and telecom (11,9%). The largest positive push was coming from securities of the following sectors: oil & gas (plus 6,05  points overall) and power industry (plus 5,95 points overall).

Over the week most of the major economy sectors represented on the Russian stock market demonstrated an upward trend. The largest positive contributor was the metals & mining sector (RTSI-Metals & Mining gained 2,88%). The oil & gas sector also showed a significant growth (2,62%), even though it failed to stick to the maximum level registered midweek.

The power industry sector performed worse than the rest of the market, the corresponding index went down by 2,92%.