Russian stocks may open flat as oil, US markets pare gains

MOSCOW, Feb 1 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks may open flat on Monday because both oil prices and U.S. stocks edged up on January 29 and then fell, analysts said.

“I expect a neutral opening of the Russian stock market today, with the MICEX at 1,785, and I expect that it can try to make it to higher levels in the coming week in the tideway of an ascending trend which remains in it,” Oleg Shagov, head of investment company’s Solid analytical department, said.

The RTS will meet a resistance zone at the level of 750, Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said. “In the short-term, a period of consolidation is possible,” he said.

The U.S. stock markets grew on January 29 but U.S. S&P futures are decreasing on Monday in the morning. The oil price dynamics are similar: oil rose on January 29 but now it is erasing gains. The Asian market trends are mixed. All these factors will make for a neutral background for the Russian trading session opening, UFS IC analyst Alexei Kozlov said.

The Chinese business activity data posted earlier on Monday slightly disappointed investors, which can reflect on Russian market trends to a certain degree, Startsev said.

Later on Monday, the U.S. will publish the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which will have some importance for Russian market participants, Vitaly Manzhos, an analyst at Obrazovanie Bank, said.

A selloff of the MICEX is not ruled out in the evening because Russian stocks are overbought after the recent advances of the index, Manzhos said.

Rumors of a possible tax reform in the oil sector by the Finance Ministry will be limiting the oil and gas sector shares’ growth, Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said.

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