Russian stocks may rise on sudden oil price surge on Wed

MOSCOW, Jan 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may see a small growth at Thursday opening because of an unexpected oil price rise on Wednesday evening, analysts said.

“The background prior to the trading session’s opening is moderately positive. Rebound of oil quotations will allow the Russian stock market to grow today,” Promsvyazbank’s analysts Ilya Frolov and Yevgeny Loktyukhov said in a research note.

Late on Wednesday, oil prices jumped in spite of a statistic report signaling that the U.S. oil stocks increased. Brent price rose 3.42% to U.S. $48.24 per barrel at 22.43 p.m. Moscow time.

On Thursday morning, Brent lost some of its gains and traded at $48.14 per barrel.

Asian markets’ current growth will support the Russian market as well, Olma’s senior analyst Anton Startsev said. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.65% and the Hang Seng 0.31% at 9.15 a.m. Moscow time.

Investors’ uncertainty about the further steps of Standard & Poor’s which will be revising Russia’s sovereign credit rating on Friday will prevent the Russian market from rising sustainably, Frolov and Loktyukhov said.

Investors will follow the U.S. jobless claims release and the producers’ price statistics on Thursday, Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex analytic department, said.

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