Russia's Putin says hopes Sistema will restore its position on market

Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he hoped Sistema would be able to restore its positions on the stock market, sending the conglomerate's shares higher. Vladimir Yevtushenkov was freed from house arrest on Wednesday, Interfax reported. He had been held on charges of money laundering connected to a deal to acquire a stake in oil company Bashneft . That stake has been returned to the state. Putin told his annual end-of-year news conference that the so-called Bashneft case was not linked to any wider revision of the privatization of state assets. Shares in Sistema rose strongly after Putin's comments, extending gains of some 60 percent to trade up around 90 percent on the day. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Lidia Kelly, Katya Golubkova, Alex Winning, editing by Elizabeth Piper)