Russian stocks may open flat as investors wait for drivers

MOSCOW, Jun 4 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks may open unchanged on Thursday as investors are waiting for the European Central Bank’s meeting on monetary policy and publication of the U.S. labor market statistics, analysts said.

“Today growth of the RTS Index is likely to stop at the beginning of the day as buyers’ activity on the markets in general may slow down prior to today’s meeting of the European Central Bank and to the Friday’s release of labor market statistics in the U.S.,” investment company Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said.

“In addition to that, the British prime minister has joined criticism of China over its involvement in Hong Kong, which may be seen as harder geopolitical risks.”

Alor Broker’s senior analyst Alexei Antonov said that the Russian market continues moving in the footsteps of international bourses because it has no internal ideas for purchases.

“Futures for the U.S. stock indices ease the morning, and the oil price also decreases moderately after a fall below U.S. $40 per barrel prompting us to expect the Russian market to open close to zero,” Antonov said.

The oil price failed to stay above $40, which supports the idea that the OPEC+ states will not start their meeting today, but will rather have it in the middle of the month. It decreases the chance for the countries to approve maintaining the current output level. Moreover, media reported that not all countries that had signed the agreement comply with their output reduction quotas, Antonov said.

But Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said that the global market mood remained positive with no significant reason for the Russian market to stop growing after a slight suspension for technical correction. Recent releases of macroeconomic data show improvement of the situation in May, which allows the markets to hope for the best, she said.

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