Russian stocks seen opening flat on Norilsk’s SPO, oil price rise

MOSCOW, Mar 13 (PRIME) -- The stock prices will likely ease at opening on Wednesday as a possibly chaotic Brexit, the U.S. parliament’s new anti-Russian initiatives and Norilsk Nickel’s secondary public offering will be partially offset by rising oil prices, analysts said.

“The current mood on the global markets can be called mixed, and the risks arising from Brexit add to the local negative mood,” Mikhail Poddubsky, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said.

The U.K. parliament voted on Tuesday against another version of the Brexit deal, and uncontrolled separation of the U.K. is among the possible scenarios, a parliament voting will be held on Wednesday.

The U.S. House of Representatives ordered assessment of Russia’s political plans’ potential danger to the U.S. and NATO, extended a blacklist due to the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov and prohibited the government from calling Crimea a Russian territory. It also ordered the intelligence to make President Vladimir Putin’s assets public.

Poddubsky said that the measures will not carry direct risks for the Russian assets but might hurt general sentiment on the Russian market.

According to Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, the Brent price growth by 0.4% is a significant positive factor for the Russian market but an SPO of Norilsk Nickel can drag down the entire market.

Georgy Vashchenko, head of the department for operations at the Russian stock market at investment company Freedom Finance, said that the SPO was an unwelcome surprise for investors because the price was 6.5% below the market.

Finam analyst Sergei Drozdov said that the MOEX Russia index support level is at 2,460 and 2,450, and the key resistance is at 2,500. The RTS support levels are 1,180 and 1,170, and the resistance are 1,191 and 1,202.

Vashchenko said that possible Brexit news will be the most important worldwide on Wednesday, and in Russia, it will be a scheduled release of a report by agricultural holding Rusagro.

Drozdov said that market players will wait for oil reserves statistics by the U.S. Energy Department to be released at 5:30 p.m., Moscow time.

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