Russian stocks seen falling on oil price, US futures' decline

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open with a downward gap on Monday as oil prices and U.S. futures are decreasing on fears concerning the new Omicron strain of the COVID-19, analysts said.

"Speaking about moods on the market on the Monday morning, they can be characterized as negative. The leading Asian indices are losing up to 2.2%, futures for the main American indices are falling by up to 1%. The nearest Brent future is sagging 2.9% in the morning," Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.ru, said.

He added that in the coming week, investors would track the dynamics of spread of the new strain of the coronavirus. The increase of quarantine in some countries and regions can make investors revise the estimates for the recovery of global economy.

The last several meetings of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) led to a revision of the expectations concerning the monetary policy of global regulators, which is negative for a wide range of assets, Zvarich said.

The activity on the majority of Western markets will decrease by the end of the week due to Christmas, Zvarich said.

Andrei Vernikov of Univer Capital said that the risks of the increase of U.S.–China tensions are significant as the start of the Olympic Games approaches. The risks of Turkey's default in 2022 grew as well, which is also a negative factor for developing markets.

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