Russian stocks may rise slightly ahead of OPEC meeting

MOSCOW, Feb 1 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely firm at opening as the oil prices have stabilized ahead of a meeting of the OPEC ministerial monitoring committee, while the Asian markets grew, analysts said.

"The global market mood on Wednesday morning can be characterized as moderately positive. The leading Asian indices added up to 1%. The key U.S. futures corrected today losing up to 0.3% after a good rise a day earlier… The market is heading to a busy day today," senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.Ru Bogdan Zvarich said.

Vladislav Antonov, financial analyst at BitRiver, said that a downward trend in oil has stopped ahead of an OPEC and a U.S. Federal Reserve System meeting, and the prices consolidated at U.S. $85.64 per barrel.

High volatility may start after 4:00 p.m., Moscow time, as the market may react to the OPEC+ results, while at 6:00 p.m., the U.S. will release the manufacturing business activity figures important for a Fed decision on the key rate. However, the reaction may be postponed because as a press conference of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will take place after the Russian session closure, Antonov said.

The result of restrictions on Russian oil exports to the states introducing price limits from Wednesday would be unclear for a month, he added.

Zvarich said that the market expects a 25 basis point key rate increase in the U.S., while the market trend will be defined by comments after the decision.

End