Russian stocks may fall on inflation, no foreign, crude support

MOSCOW, Nov 18 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may open with a decrease on Thursday following both inflation-induced fears and weak crude oil dynamics, as well as lack of support from any foreign trading platforms, analysts said.

“Asian exchanges are trading at the bears’ dictate and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index is down. Everything points to our market opening with a slight decline,” Andrei Vernikov of Univer Capital said.

In addition, high inflation negatively affects traders’ strategies, Vernikov said.

According to Alexander Arutyunyan of Russ-Invest, ambiguous statistics on oil reserves put pressure on oil prices, which may also affect Russian stocks today.

“Oil is falling by 0.4%, testing the $80 per barrel mark from above. It is cheapening oil that will hinder the development of a full-fledged rebound of the MOEX Index. On the whole, the situation on the Russian stock market looks alarming. In the course of trading we can see that the buyers are now weak, there are no internal reasons for growth.,” Alexei Antonov of Alor Broker said.

As Igor Galaktionov of BSC Financial Group said, given the external environment, there is little likelihood that the Moscow Exchange Index will go up today.

“Although U.S. and European indices are trading in a weak plus, the key Asian markets are located in the red zone. … Given the oil market is under pressure …, we expect the MOEX index to consolidate today at the lower level of 4,100–4,150 points,” Vladimir Solovyov of PSB Bank said.

“The Russian market is likely to trade in a moderately negative territory, taking into account the morning decline in oil quotations. This creates conditions for the opening of the Moscow Exchange Index with a restrained decline. … We expect the MOEX Index to open with a decline of 0.1–0.4%, in the range of 4135–4145 points,” Vitaly Manzhos, chief analyst at Algo Capital, said.

End