Share prices were going up all day long and the majority of them surpassed yesterday_s closing level by 4-6 per cent reaching this year_s high by 16:30 today.

For instance, stocks of RAO UES of Russia, the national power utility, amounted to $0.2 per share, LUKoil approached a level of $14 per share. Unlike Russian blue chips, stock indices have not reached their high. Despite staying quite low this morning, volumes of concluded deals increased in the middle of the day and surpassed the average trading volume of this week by 16:30. Investment experts believe that increasing world indices and the stabilization of oil prices triggered this stock growth. Positive expectations of the presidential elections also provoked the price growth. If a new Russian President is elected in the first round, the market will continue rallying, experts said. The MICEX index advanced 1.95 per cent to 244.85 points by 16:30, the RTS index rose 3.97 per cent to 221.01 points. The RBC index, which is based on data provided by various trading sites, was up 3.31 per cent to 42.15 points. The RTS trading volume amounted to $25.6m, the MICEX volume came to RUR1.5bn ($52.9m).