Lukoil dividend gap, key rate wait may drag Russian stocks down

MOSCOW, Dec 15 (PRIME) -- Sales in the Russian stocks may continue on Friday morning driven by a dividend gap of Lukoil and the expectation of a key rate increase by the central bank and of results of the E.U. summit on anti-Russian sanctions, analysts said.

“Trade will start with a dividend gap of Lukoil, and this alone may lead to the MOEX Russia Index falling to 2,955,” Alexei Golovinov, chief analyst at PSB Bank, said. The index decreased 0.77% to 3,008.84 on Thursday.

“The Russian stock market went down steadily on Thursday despite positive sentiment in the West, which led to an increase in prices of metals and oil,” Alexei Antonov, head of Alor Broker’s investment consulting department, said. At the start of trade on Friday the market may fall further due to a dividend gap of Lukoil, he also said.

Brent oil grew 2.65% to U.S. $76.64 per barrel on Thursday thanks to an optimistic forecast of the International Energy Agency (IEA) projecting a rise in oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels per day in 2024 in light of global economic recovery, BitRiver’s financial analyst Vladislav Antonov said. The oil prices were also supported by the dollar’s weakening due to a soft stance of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed), he added.

The positive dynamics in China are another factor of growth for oil as the country imports significant amount of energy resources, the BitRiver analyst also said. On Friday morning, Brent is trading at $76.98 per barrel.

The supervisory board’s meeting of Russia’s central bank will be the focus of attention today as the key rate may be raised to 16% from the current 15%.

Investors will also pay attention to results of the summit of the E.U. leaders to be held today, statistics on industrial production, retail sales and investment in China, preliminary data on business activity in services and production in Europe, and statistics on industrial production in the U.S.

The corporate news flow includes a dividend decision of Gazprom Neft’s shareholders and the start of trading in shares of Sovcombank on the Moscow Exchange.

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