Russian stocks seen mixed as oil prices continue falling on virus

MOSCOW, Feb 28 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market can open mixed on Friday as the oil prices continued to fall on new information about the coronavirus, analysts said.

“We expect mixed dynamics. The market will still react to the fluctuations on the global crude and stock markets. A new price slide is improbable. The oil and gas shares and banks can become the outsiders if the oil prices fall below U.S. $50 per barrel of Brent,” Georgy Vashchenko, head of investment company Freedom Finance’s department for trade operations on the Russian stock market, said.

Vashchenko set the MOEX Russia Index guideline at 2,900–3,000.

Sergei Drozdov, analyst at investment company Finam, said that the market is worried that an outbreak of coronavirus may turn into a pandemic. The head of the World Health Organization said that the outbreak is on the key stage of its development. Germany is studying measures to counter the effect of the virus on the economy.

But European Central Bank Chairwoman Christine Largarde said that the authority saw no need in stimulating growth or responding to the challenge immediately. The U.S. Federal Reserve System earlier expressed a similar opinion, Drozdov said.

He said that the oil prices slid 3.87% to $51.41 as oil could not resist the negative news due to a high speculative content in its prices. The OPEC plus deal participants are to prolong the deal in March and deepen the production cut by 600,000 barrels per day.

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