Russian stocks seen edging up on Asian markets' increase

MOSCOW, Mar 3 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open higher on Friday on the back of an increase in Asia, but may slide soon after as a meeting of the Security Council is scheduled later in the day, analysts said.

"Market participants have started profit taking on long positions after a seven-day growth. The incident in the Bryansk Region was the reason for this… There are risks of a decrease to 2,195 after a meeting of the Security Council," Vladislav Antonov, financial analyst at BitRiver, said.

According to Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz, a group of saboteurs entered the region from Ukraine and opened fire killing one person and wounding a child.

Financial platform Banki.ru’s senior analyst Bogdan Zvarich said that the leading Asian floors gained 1.6% before the start of the Russian session with the Japanese market leading. The key U.S. futures corrected downwards by about 0.1%, the nearest Brent futures eased by 0.1% to U.S. $84.7 per barrel, which overall creates a positive external background.

Antonov said that the oil prices are stable enough to pass a resistance level and may rise to $86.25 during the U.S. session after a release of business activity indices in the manufacturing and service sectors for February.

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