beyondbrics

CEE stocks had a strong session on Tuesday as rising commodity prices and liquidity provided by the US Federal Reserve’s stimulus program helped mining and metal stocks. Moscow’s main index made significant gains as its gas and steel stocks rallied. The first day of trading for the newly-listed Warsaw Stock Exchange saw its shares gain more than 25 per cent. In currencies, the Russian rouble gained against the dollar and the euro.

Russia‘s Micex jumped 1.7 per cent to 1,568.26, its sixth consecutive session of gains, as its oil and metals stocks surged on a positive outlook for commodity-related companies.

OAO Novatek, the gas producer, surged 5.1 percent to its highest on record after its board approved the purchase of a majority stake in two Siberian gas projects. OAO Severstal, Russia’s largest steelmaker, gained 3.8 per cent and oil company OAO Rosneft added 1.5 percent.

Michael Kart, a managing partner at Moscow-based investment firm Marshall Spectrum, told Bloomberg, referring to the Fed’s quantitative-easing strategy:

Commodities are extremely well supported, driven by QE2 in the U.S. and oil is trading higher.

Poland‘s WIG20 was up 1.4 per cent to 2,769.26, as the shares of the newly-listed Warsaw Stock Exchange surged over 25.6 per cent in the first day of trading. The sell-off raised $420m for the debt-laden Polish government, which had owned 98 per cent of the bourse, a stake reduced to 35 per cent after the listing. KGHM Polska Miedz, the copper producer, gained 4.7 percent, its biggest rise since July.

In Turkey, the ISE 100 added 0.9 per cent to close at 7,094.06. But Akcansa Cimento, a cement maker, dropped 0.5 per cent after it was downgraded to “underperform” from “outperform” by Cheuvreux. TCELL, Turkey’s biggest mobile-phone company, gained for a second day, gaining 3.2 per cent, to a nine-month high. Turkcell had its price estimate raised by Tera Brokers, which cited strong third-quarter earnings.

Hungary‘s Budapest exchange inched up 0.9 per cent to 23,127.36, as a government official assured the market that his government is “totally committed” to cutting the budget gap below the European Union’s limit of 3 percent of economic output. Moody’s will make a decision this month on whether to cut Hungary’s credit rating from Baa1, the third-lowest investment grade.

The Czech Republic‘s benchmark index gained 0.7 per cent to 1,164.10 as the country’s biggest power producer, CEZ, gained more than 2.6 per cent after its third-quarter profit came in ahead of analyst forecasts. In Romania, the BET was up 1.9 per cent to 5,160.52.

In currencies, at 17:00 BST, the Polish zloty was up 0.9 per cent against the euro and up 0.6 per cent against the dollar. The Russian rouble was up 0.4 per cent against the dollar and 0.7 per cent against the euro. The Czech koruna lost 0.4 per cent against the dollar while the Romanian leu was down 0.3 per cent.