Russian stocks can decrease on oil price, foreign markets' fall

MOSCOW, Feb 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open lower on Wednesday in the wake of a fall on the foreign stock markets and oil prices, analysts said.

"The global market mood on Wednesday in the morning can be characterized as negative. The leading floors in Asia lost up to 1.5%. The key U.S. indices' futures continued Tuesday’s trend retrenching up to 0.5%. The nearest Brent oil futures fell by 0.9%, trading at about U.S. $84.8 per barrel," Bogdan Zvarich, financial platform Banki.ru’s senior analyst, said.

Investors are to continue to revise their expectations of the U.S. key rate future changes, its peak and the time the Federal Reserve will keep it high, which would pressure risky assets, he said. Tuesday’s U.S. inflation report disappointed the market adding to the negative trend, Zvarich said.

Promsvyazbank managing expert Yekaterina Krylova said that the oil prices decreased after the American Petroleum Institute (API) said that the U.S. crude reserves jumped by 10.5 million barrels. However, the situation on the market was not very unfavorable, as OPEC expected demand to grow by 100,000 barrels on the back of better China's economic prospects.

The U.S. Energy Department is to release statistics on Wednesday, which may confirm the API data to keep the oil price pressure for some time, she said.

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