Russian MICEX seen flat, RTS falling on low oil price, Chinese gloom

MOSCOW, Oct 14 (PRIME) -- Russia’s MICEX stock market index will change marginally at the opening of Wednesday’s trading session, while the RTS will fall on disappointing Chinese statistics and low oil prices, analysts said.

“The external background looks moderately unfavorable. A JP Morgan Chase report was weaker than forecasts, the Chinese inflation data implied a cooling economy, and Brent is below a psychologically important threshold of U.S. $50 per barrel,” Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said.

Brent grew 0.14% to U.S. $49.31 per barrel at 8.59 a.m., Moscow time.

Investors are confused by a lack of consensus in the Federal Reserve on the U.S. key rate increase in 2015, Oleg Shagov, head of a research department at Solid, said.

But easing of the conflict in Ukraine will prompt an inflow of capital to the Russian market, Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin said.

The MICEX is likely to start Wednesday’s session at about 1,720, Shagov said.

Monday’s news of an agreement between Yandex and Microsoft, making Yandex the default search engine at Microsoft browsers, will continue triggering Yandex’ share price growth, Georgy Vashchenko, director for operations on the Russian stock market at investment company Freedom Finance, said.

Gazprom will remain under pressure because of the government’s decision to raise the mineral extraction tax on gas and to limit the domestic tariff growth, Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

A U.S. corporate reports season continues and on Wednesday investors will see releases of the Bank of America and Wells Fargo, Startsev said. U.S. retail sales figures will also provide Russian traders with some insights, Manzhos said.

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