Russian stocks can consolidate during the day on uncertain environ

MOSCOW, Apr 22 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may open flat or insignificantly lower and consolidate later in the day on Thursday thanks to a vague foreign background, but growth to new highs is also not excluded if the global environment improves, analysts said.

“We expect the MOEX Russia index to open with marginal changes or with a slight decline of below 0.3%, within the 3,550–3,565 range… After the opening the index is likely to consolidate. The uncertain external background in the morning does not create conditions for a strong movement,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, said.

The external background looks uncertain with the U.S. indices futures demonstrating an insignificant fall of around 0.15%, the Brent oil price losing 0.3%, and gold adding 0.1%. Asian markets are seen mixed, he added.

Senior analyst at Promsvyazbank Bogdan Zvarich said that the Russian stock market will likely consolidate, but may start to rise if the external environment improves.

The market will also be driven by releases of IFRS financial reports for January–March by steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), precious metals producers Polymetal International and electronic goods retailer M.Video-Eldorado.

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