Russian stocks seen decreasing early on oil price fall

MOSCOW, Feb 3 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely decline on Friday on the back of falling oil prices, analysts said.

"The Russian stocks may be under pressure today at the start of trade. Deterioration of the oil price situation and the desire of some investors to take profit on their long positions ahead of the weekend may become the reason for a decrease," senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.Ru Bogdan Zvarich said.

"As a result, the MOEX Russia Index may erase some of the rise demonstrated earlier on the week at the end of the session and retrench to 2,230," the analyst said.

The foreign market mood was moderately positive with the leading Asian markets rising up to 0.6%, except the Chinese index that sagged by 1.1%. The key U.S. futures were mixed after an increase on Thursday. At the same time, the nearest Brent futures lost 0.3% to slightly below U.S. $82 per barrel, Zvarich said.

Vladislav Antonov, financial analyst at BitRiver, said that discussions about the tenth package of sanctions against Russia limited activity of the buyers.

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