Russian stocks can grow slightly at opening on rising US futures

MOSCOW, Sep 4 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is to firm at opening on Tuesday as the rising U.S. stock market futures make the external background mostly positive despite a lack of interest to risky assets, analysts said.

“Consolidation of the RTS index will likely continue at the start of trade today,” Anton Startsev, a senior analyst at investment company Olma, said.

“A holiday in the U.S. led to a decline of market activity in general but investor appetite for the developing markets remained quite pessimistic: the MSCI EM index fell by almost 4% over the last month and by almost 10% since the start of the year.”

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, said that the external background before the start of the session is moderately positive with the U.S. stock market futures rising by up to 0.25%, neutral Brent futures and easing gold futures and the mixed Asian markets.

As a result, the MOEX Russia index is to rise by 0.1–0.3% to 2,350. The levels of 2,340 and 2,330 are to be support and 2,360 and 2,380 resistance.

The U.S. statistics, including construction costs for July, can influence the Russian market to a certain extent later in the day, he said.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that the most important corporate events scheduled for Tuesday are operating results of the Moscow Exchange for August, closing of registers for dividends by PIK Group, GlobalTrans, and for a shareholder meeting by MTS, Polyus and Novatek.

End