Russian stocks can grow on oil price increase after OPEC+ meeting

MOSCOW, Apr 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely increase at the start of the session on Friday on an oil price rise after an OPEC plus meeting, analysts said.

"The external background favors restart of purchases of Russian shares so far – the U.S. futures continue to firm, industrial and precious metals rise, and oil is traded at about U.S. $64.7 per barrel," Alor Broker senior analyst Alexei Antonov said.

According to Antonov, the oil price increase on Thursday afternoon was suspicious because the OPEC plus deal members decided to raise production starting from May gradually, while the market expected the current quotas to be prolonged at least for May.

Oil started to ease on the news but later the trend changed for a rise. The analyst said that the fact that the U.S. recovered after frost and reached standard output, as well as the start of quarantine in France would prevent further oil price growth.

He warned that any bad news can trigger correction to $60.

Georgy Vashchenko, head of investment company Freedom Finance’s department of trade operations on the Russian stock market, put the MOEX Russia Index guidance at 3,500–3,550.

Western markets will be closed for Good Friday, which, according to Antonov, will make the Moscow's session unpredictable.

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