Russian stocks may rise at opening supported by growing oil price

MOSCOW, Feb 7 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks may increase at Wednesday’s opening supported by a rebound in oil prices, analysts said.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior risk manager at investment company Nord Capital, said that the background prior to the opening of the Russian market is mixed as the U.S. stock index futures are falling by about 0.5%, but Japan’s Nikkey225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng grew by about 1.3%. Still, higher oil prices are likely to support Russian shares, he said.

“We expect a positive start of trade with a noticeable increase of about 0.5% of the MOEX Russia Index close to a 2,250-point mark. The levels of 2,240 and 2,230 will remain the closest significant support, while 2,260 and 2,270 will act as resistance,” Manzhos said.

Oleg Shagov, head of investment company Solid’s research department, also said that local investors are likely to price in the growth of oil prices at the beginning of trade in spite of the mixed external background.

“We expect to see the Russian stock market’s opening with an upward gap close to 2,250 of the MICEX index and suppose that the stock indicator will try to regain part of the losses it had suffered over the past three trade sessions thanks to the improvement in the external background,” Shagov said.

But Anton Startsev, a leading analyst at investment company Olma, said that a downward correction is still possible in Russian shares.

“We don’t rule out a possibility that contraction of the RTS index may cease at the beginning of the day as the initial reaction to the previous change in the external background was too nervous. Still, volatility of the Western stock indices remains high as the VIX index is close to 30, which has a negative impact on the readiness of investors to take risks, and we suppose that contraction may resume in the short-term,” Startsev said.

Shagov also said that local investors would track the release of financial results of Sberbank for January 2018 as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) during the day. Market players will also pay attention to a speech that Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin is to give to the parliament’s lower house State Duma on social and economic forecasts for Russia in 2018–2020, he said.

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