Russian stocks seen edging up on oil price increase

MOSCOW, Sep 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is expected to open with an upward gap on Wednesday, correcting after a Tuesday's drop on the back of the rising prices for oil, but the further dynamics of the index is unclear, analysts said.

"A positive external background in the morning creates conditions for a moderate increase of the MOEX Russia Index at the opening of the session. The index can recover quite significantly later after yesterday's dive," Algo Capital’s senior risk manager Vitaly Manzhos said.

He said that the U.S. key index futures are rising by up to 0.2%, the Brent futures add 0.4%, the Asian markets are mixed, which creates a positive background for the beginning of the session.

However, Alor Broker analyst Alexei Antonov said that the market may continue its decline beyond a support level of 2,200 and may even break the notch of 2,000 after the government decided to raise taxes on the exporters of minerals, and worrying geopolitical news came.

According to Antonov, the state-run companies are under a major risk, as they can be the target of new sanctions after the Donetsk, Lugansk republics and the Khersonskaya and Zaporozhskaya regions hold referenda on joining Russia.

Market participants are expecting U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell to decide on the key rate and give a speech on Wednesday. A not too harsh rhetoric and a refusal to raise the rate by 1 percentage point could affect the U.S. market and the oil prices, which would support the Russian market.

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