Russian stocks seen mixed on flat oil prices, falling ruble

MOSCOW, Jul 5 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open mixed on Wednesday as the oil prices consolidate and the ruble continue to weaken, analysts said.

"The market may try to continue its upward dynamics today at the start of trade. Consolidation of the Brent oil blend in the range of U.S. $75–80 per barrel is a positive factor for our shares and may support purchases,” senior analyst at financial supermarket Banki.Ru Bogdan Zvarich said.

“As a result, the MOEX Russia Index will try to continue to recover and make a new step towards the high of June set at 2,820."

The ruble continued weakening on Wednesday morning after closing lower on Tuesday, which will also likely support the MOEX Russia Index, BitRiver financial analyst Vladislav Antonov said.

The central bank has refused to intervene on the currency market but may rise the key rate in July in order to fight inflation acceleration, he said.

According to Zvarich, the global market mood was negative in the morning, as the key Asian indices decreased by 0.5%, the main U.S. stocks futures lost 0.1%, the nearest Brent futures decreased by 0.4% to $75.9 per barrel.

The dynamics of risky assets will depend on the Services purchasing managers’ index of the European states and the U.S., on the U.S. manufacturing orders and the protocol of the last meeting of the Federal Reserve System to be published later in the day, Zvarich said.

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