Russian stocks may consolidate on moderately negative environment

MOSCOW, Sep 19 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to consolidate on Thursday as it is pressured by a discouraging global environment with U.S. indices futures and crude prices seen in the negative territory, analysts said.

“The U.S. indices futures falling 0.3% in the morning and a new decline of crude prices are the major factors that prevent the MOEX Russia Index from growing. We expect the market to open at the level of yesterday’s closing. If the external background improves, the local stocks will follow the sentiment later in the day,” Alor Broker analyst Alexei Antonov said.

The U.S. benchmarks are falling “under their own weight”, because they approached their record highs on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve expectedly reduced the key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, and Chair Jerome Powell said that the regulator is ready for a further cut, Antonov also said.

Promsvyazbank senior analyst Mikhail Poddubsky said that a lack of global risk appetite will results in another day of consolidation within a 2,800–2,850 range for the MOEX Russia Index.

Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said that consolidation below the 1,400 mark is the most probable scenario for the RTS index as well.

End