Russian stocks can fall on oil price, low investor activity

MOSCOW, Aug 1 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may open lower and consolidate during the day on Wednesday due to worsening environment on the oil market and low investor activity globally, analysts said.

“We expect the MOEX Russia Index to edge down by around 0.2–0.3% to 2,315 at opening… to price in yesterday evening’s worsening of sentiment on the crude market which still continues. The benchmark is likely to consolidate later in the day,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Nord Capital, said.

The Brent oil price has dropped to below $74 per barrel.

Finam analyst Sergei Drozdov said that the decline was caused by worse-than-expected statistics report by the American Petroleum Institute (API) marking a rise in the U.S. crude stocks.

Manzhos said that the external background looks uncertain and mixed and that domestic investors will likely follow U.S. Department of Energy’s weekly oil inventories report.

Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev expected low investor activity on the global market prior to the announcement of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s key rate decision.

The market will also be driven by releases of financial reports for April–June and January–June by power utility Mosenergo and grocery retailer Dixy Group.

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