Russian stocks seen falling on oil price, foreign markets' dip

MOSCOW, May 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market would likely open with a downward gap on Monday because of a decrease of the majority of key foreign indices and the oil prices, analysts said.

"A noticeable deterioration of the external background in the morning does not favor active purchases in the shares of the Russian companies in the first half of the day. Most probably, the MOEX Russia Index will stabilize near the opening level in the first hours of the trade," Vitaly Manzhos, senior analyst at investment company Algo Capital, said.

Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.ru, said that the foreign market moods are moderately negative, as the key Asian markets are mixed on the back of a lackluster China's industrial output report. The key U.S. markets futures are falling by up to 0.5%, and the Brent oil blend is sliding by 1.8% to a level lower than U.S. $110.

According to Manzhos, Russia's inflation acceleration to 17.83% on the year is a significant market factor, although often ignored by the local market participants. Since the rise of the stock market indices exceeds the inflation rates in the long term, a high inflation is a good news, but it is shadowed by the political background.

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