Russian stocks can ease at opening on new sanctions by Washington

MOSCOW, Dec 30 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely edge down at Friday’s opening in the wake of Washington sanctions against several officials and entities, while the oil price and the key foreign markets’ rise will support the stocks, analysts said.

“The ultimate impact of the key external factors which significantly influence the behavior of the Russian financial market has been moderately positive today at the start of the day under our estimates,” Oleg Shagov, head of investment company Solid’s research department, said.

Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said that the news on introduction of new sanctions against Russia will exert pressure on the quotations in spite of a positive background.

Oil prices have increased above U.S. $57 per barrel on expectations of the start of production cuts by OPEC and key non-OPEC oil makers. The U.S. stock market futures are firming as well as the Asian stocks. The European premarket signals a positive opening of the session. Shagov said that all these factors will contribute to support of the Russian assets at the session start.

He said that later on Friday, during the last 2016 trading session, the Russian market dynamics will be shaped by the oil price and ruble fluctuations, Western trading floors’ dynamics and statistics releases.

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