Russian stocks may rise at opening on growing oil price

MOSCOW, Dec 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may start the main trading session on Thursday higher in an attempt to rebound supported by a rising oil price after Wednesday’s sales, analysts said.

Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, said that the Russian stock market is likely to edge up at opening to price in a 1% growth of the Brent price. Later in the day, the release of weekly data on primary jobless claims in the U.S. could have an impact on the national market, he said.

Alor Broker senior analyst Alexei Antonov said that on Wednesday the MOEX Russia Index fell by 2.6% with top bank Sberbank and oil majors Lukoil and Rosneft being the loss leaders, meaning that the sales were triggered by foreigners on political fears.

“The external background is neutral on Thursday morning, a 0.2% contraction of the futures for the U.S. market is compensated by a more than 0.7% increase of the oil price. The Russian shares are trying to rebound in morning trade after yesterday’s sales,” Antonov said.

“Even the U.S. indices growth and oil may provide no support to the Russian shares, as everything will depend on the foreign investor mood. But if the West starts a downward correction, it will only worsen the situation here, and the probability of this scenario is high. The U.S. indices are overbought, and slowed down their growth on Wednesday, this is why large players may start taking their profits in the U.S. securities on Thursday.”

Alexander Arutyunyan, senior economist at investment company Russ-Invest, said that the MOEX Russia Index has been moving in contradiction to the three major markets with which it has a direct historical correlation, including the S&P 500 and the Brent oil, mainly due to the geopolitical risks. It looks like the geopolitical risks, including possible sanctions against the Russian financial sector due to exacerbation of the Ukrainian problem, cause investors to get rid of the Russian assets, he said.

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