Russian stocks fall as oil prices, foreign bourses roll back

MOSCOW, Mar 2 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks are likely to edge down at opening on Tuesday because the external background only favors sales as the futures for foreign indices and oil prices fall, analysts said.

“So far, the futures for the U.S. stock indices lose about half a percentage point, all commercial and precious metals and the oil prices fall by 1.5%. This is why we expect a lower opening,” Alor Broker senior analyst Alexei Antonov said.

“There are no new negative reasons for sales. The markets have simply entered a period of high volatility while there is a lack of strong drivers for further growth and a lack of will for mass sales because the global financial system has excessive liquidity.”

Alexei Kalachyov, analyst at investment company Finam, also said that the external background favors a slight contraction of the Russian stock market at opening.

“We may see the stock markets ease after unanimous growth on the first day of spring,” he said.

“The yield on U.S. 10-year treasuries stayed at 1.4%, which slightly weakened tensions on the stock market for a while. At the same time, statistics on the manufacturing sector of Europe and the U.S. outperformed forecasts. … There are chances for risky assets to continue growing, but the situation does not look like stable,” Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

She also said that investors will focus on releases of macroeconomic data for Germany and the Eurozone and on financial results that diamond mining giant ALROSA and hydropower giant RusHydro should publish on Tuesday.

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