Russian stocks may continue falling on upcoming new sanctions

MOSCOW, Feb 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to continue falling at the start of trade on Thursday as E.U.’s preparation of new sanctions should prevent any purchases, analysts said.

“Yesterday the market-wide sales continued, with the market losing almost 3% at the end of the trading session. At the same time, the U.S. markets firmed and the oil price remained at around U.S. $85 per barrel. This shows that the root of our problems is inside, and its core is in the high geopolitical risks and concerns that important events will happen next week,” head of Alor Broker’s investment consulting department Alexei Antonov said.

The concerns were not eliminated, and there are high chances for the market to continue falling, even though a technical upward rebound is possible because of the rising oil prices, he said.

BitRiver financial analyst Vladislav Antonov said the high geopolitical uncertainty was caused by the E.U.’s upcoming coordination of the 10th round of anti-Russian sanctions.

Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at financial platform Banki.ru, said that the background for the Russian market was positive -- the leading Asian bourses gained around 1.8%, the futures for the U.S. stock indices added 0.2% after a moderate Wednesday growth, and even the Brent oil price rose by 0.6%.

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