Russian stocks may rise at opening on growing oil prises

MOSCOW, Apr 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to increase at opening on Thursday on growing oil prices and a weak ruble, analysts said.

“We expect the MOEX Russia Index to attempt to consolidate above 2,500 points today, but it is quite possible that the index will be below that level by the end of the day due to the worsening external background,” PSB Bank senior analyst Yegor Zhilnikov said.

“We continue to bet on shares of oil and gas companies, which will be supported by the losing ruble. Besides, we expect to see the growth of Sber securities,” he added.

The weakening of the ruble has slowed down, but the potential for a local move into the 80–81 ruble range remains, Zhilnikov said. The ruble is under pressure from a number of factors, despite high oil prices, as well as the weakening of the dollar on global markets, he added.

According to Zhilnikov, the factors are delays in export flows, as well as recovering imports to Russia, increased demand for currency from banks, due to which there was a surge in the volume of swap operations with the central bank, and the subsequent reduction of currency sales by the Finance Ministry against the background of growing oil quotations.

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