Russian stocks traded near a one-month high as the nation’s biggest lender rose for a fifth day to a record after the head of the company said the economy was set to improve, Bloomberg reported. The Micex index of Russia’s 50 biggest stocks gained as much as 0.4% and was up 0.1% at 1,929.27 in Moscow, trimming its decline in the month to 1.2%. Sberbank, which has the biggest weighting in the index at 15.3%, rallied as much as 1.4% to 135.08 rubles ($2.05), the highest on record. Russian stocks have advanced 9.5% this year as crude oil, the nation’s main export earner, rallied from a record low in January. The economy has passed through the worst of the slump, Sberbank’s Chief Executive Officer Herman Gref said last week, after the company reported its biggest quarterly profit on record on May 25. The ruble advanced for the first time in three days, adding 0.2% to 65.99 per dollar. The yield on five-year government bonds was unchanged at 9.22%.
