Russian stocks seen higher on positive background, oil growth

MOSCOW, Aug 21 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks may moderately increase at the opening on Wednesday amid a positive foreign background and rising oil prices, analysts said.

“The situation in the morning suggests that investor sentiment is positive: the U.S. futures are adding around 0.3%, oil is growing a little more,” Alor Broker analyst Alexei Antonov said.

“That’s why we expect a weakly positive opening of our market and continued growth. But the growth is yet limited to the level of 2,700 points at the MOEX Russia Index. Further growth requires new drivers,” he added.

Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, expects the MOEX Russia Index to open with a moderate increase of around 0.3%, near the level of 2,680 points.

Before the start of trading in Russia, the U.S. stock index futures are growing by around 0.2–0.3%, Brent oil futures rose 0.5%, China’s Shanghai Composite is balancing on the verge of positive and negative change, while Japan’s Nikkei225 lost 0.4%, the analyst said.

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