Russian stocks seen flat ahead of cbank's extraordinary meeting

MOSCOW, Aug 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open with marginal changes as the central bank will hold an extraordinary meeting later in the day to decide on steps to curb the ruble fall, analysts said.

"We expect market consolidation near yesterday's closing today at the start of trade. Investors will unlikely to make significant moves ahead of a decision of the central bank on the key rate," senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.Ru Bogdan Zvarich said.

The central bank will hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday with a report slated for 10:30 a.m., Moscow time. Promsvyazbank analyst Dmitry Gritskevich said that the authority would likely apply a wide range of measures to prop up the ruble, including an increase of the reserve rule for the banks and/or additional cross-border capital transactions.

The analyst said that the key rate is not expected to grow significantly, as the central bank would like to avoid stopping economic growth and to keep a room for a September maneuver.

"At the same time, after publication of a press release after the meeting of the regulator, volatility on the market will rise sharply, and the MOEX Russia Index may continue a downward correction, if the rate is raised significantly, the national market-focused segments may experience the greatest pressure on expectations of deterioration of performance and effect of the rate on the end customer demand," Zvarich said.

He added that the exporters will experience some pressure from the rising ruble.

Alexei Antonov, head of Alor Broker’s investment consulting department, said that the ruble had already priced in the expectations on the central bank's key rate steps.

The external market background was ambivalent in the morning with the Brent consolidating at U.S. $86.26. The leading Asian markets were mixed, and the key U.S. futures consolidating above the level of Monday's closure.

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