Russian stocks may rise on neutral background, oil at $52/bbl

MOSCOW, Aug 8 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks may moderately grow at the opening on Tuesday amid a neutral background and oil prices that can get support from an OPEC meeting, analysts said.

“We expect the Russian stock market to open at around 1,970–1,975 points at the MICEX index, assuming that amid a neutral background this stock indicator will continue fluctuations around the achieved levels,” Oleg Shagov, head of investment company Solid’s research department, said. On Monday, the MICEX closed at 1,970.37.

The ultimate influence of key external factors that have a significant impact on the Russian financial market is close to neutral today, the analyst said.

Brent oil futures are fluctuating around U.S. $52.2 per barrel ahead of publication of the U.S. oil reserves data and results of a two-day meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC states, Shagov said. The participants of the meeting will likely find out reasons for some countries’ non-compliance with taken earlier obligations and will call for tightening the discipline, the analyst said.

The leading U.S. stock index futures are suffering small losses, while Asian stock indicators are not showing single dynamics.

Among other corporate events, investors will follow publication of financial results by power producer Unipro and operating results of fertilizer maker PhosAgro.

End