Russian stocks seen opening flat on mixed oil price, US futures’

MOSCOW, Feb 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open with marginal dynamics on Friday because of a mixed trend in the oil prices and the U.S. stock market futures, analysts said.

“The external background in the morning can be qualified as neutral. The U.S. futures are grew by a quarter of percent but oil is getting cheaper slightly. We expect opening of the stock market near yesterday’s closing,” Alexei Antonov, analyst at Alor Broker, said.

The oil prices grew 0.21% on Thursday to U.S. $56.49. On Friday morning, Brent traded at $56.40.

Sergei Drozdov, analyst at investment company Finam, said that the World Health Organization explained a recent surge in the number of coronavirus cases by a change of diagnostic methodology, which put the virus again on the back burner.

The Wall Street investors were disappointed by the Federal Reserve System (Fed) of New York’s plan to reduce repo transactions starting from the overnight on Friday. “A lower liquidity injection is sad news for the market,” Drozdov said.

According to Antonov, the market may try to rise if the external background continues to improve but the dynamics will be slow. “We have few ideas except for the dividend ones and will be guided by foreign floors,” he said.

Drozdov put the support level for the MOEX Russia Index at 3,095 and 3,070. The resistance notch is 3,145. The local support level for the RTS index stands at 1,530 and 1,510, and resistance at 1,560 and 1,580.

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