Russian stocks may rise on high oil price, Fed’s rate decision

MOSCOW, Mar 22 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks are likely to grow on Thursday morning supported by high oil prices, while a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) boosted investor interest to emerging markets, analysts said.

“The increase of the RTS index may continue at the beginning of trade today as futures for the Brent oil price climbed close to a psychologically important level of U.S. $70 per barrel and the U.S. dollar weakened at the currency market,” Anton Startsev, a leading analyst at investment company Olma, said.

Startsev said that the Fed changed the target range of its basic interest rate by 0.25 percentage points upward at the Wednesday meeting, as expected, but an ensuing comment was not as tough as many market players expected.

Sergei Kozlovsky, head of the research department at financial company Grand Capital, said that the oil prices jumped over 3% on Wednesday on concerns that the U.S. may step into a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran to support the Saudis, which may lead to new sanctions against Iran.

Investment company Veles Capital said in a research note that investors will focus on financial reports of Bank Saint Petersburg and electronic goods retailer M.Video for 2017 as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is to publish natural gas reserves data, while Germany is to release the IFO Business Climate Index for March, the research note read.

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