MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's stock exchanges, the RTS and MICEX, showed strong growth during Thursday trading, with their benchmark indices climbing almost 18% and over 19%, respectively.

The dollar-denominated RTS index rose 17.81% from Wednesday's close to 758.71 points, while the more liquid ruble-denominated MICEX index leapt 19.46% to 727.39 points.

Gains on the RTS were led by state-run banks VTB (29.17%) and Sberbank (26.73%).

Shares in energy giant Gazprom surged by 23.08%, independent crude producer LUKoil by 17.9%, state-controlled oil firm Rosneft by 23.56% and metals giant Norilsk Nickel by 20%.

The rally on MICEX was led by gold producer Polyus Gold, which leapt 36.6%, Sberbank (29.53%), and steel producer NLMK (25.63%). Trading was suspended for an hour after the technical index grew by more than 10%.