MOSCOW: The Russian stock market has witnessed bullish trend after the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Ukraine ceasefire deal in Minsk. The dollar based Russian Trading System (RTS) cash index soared 5.8 percent after this deal. The deal cut the probability of Russian companies, will be slapped with more EU sanctions.
The MICEX index hit 1,805 points, its highest level since April 2011. Gazprom, the country’s biggest gas exporter, rose 5.52 percent and Rosneft, the largest oil producer, increased 8.6 percent. Lukoil, the country’s biggest independent oil producer saw its share price edge up 7 percent.
Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender and target of Western sanctions saw stocks rise by more than 9 percent.
The ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine starts February 15 after leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France met in Minsk on February 12. The deal calls for the de-militarization of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, which have been entrenched in civil war. More than 5,400 people have died in the fighting since April 2014.
