MOSCOW — Russia’s benchmark RTS stock index has broken through a psychological barrier of 900 points on Friday. This was a predictable development, with the index at 899.47 points at 13:42 Moscow time on Thursday.

At 12:30 Moscow time on Friday, RAO UES stock was 2.3 percent up, Norilsk Nickel rose almost 2 percent, and Tatneft gained 3 percent. Trading volume on the RTS classic market was $25.6 million. The RTS index rose 0.77 percent 901.5.

This is an all-time high. The index dropped to its all-time low of 37.74 points on October 2, 1998. On June 24 1996, it rose above 200 points, and it broke through 500 points on July 25 1997. Last month, Russia’s benchmark stock index rose above 800 points.

Absence of bad news, high oil prices and high liquidity have a good impact on the market, and most analysts expect the RTS index to rise further.

Though, experts note that methods used to calculate the RTS index have been changed repeatedly, and comparing with previous years could be not quite correct.