Russian stocks seen opening flat on oil price decline

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open unchanged on Tuesday as the oil prices declined on Monday, analysts said.

"The Asian markets demonstrate neutral dynamics, the oil prices are reluctant to recover after yesterday's fall,” Andrei Vernikov, head of investment analysis department of Investment Group Univer, said.

“I expect a neutral market opening. The RTS index will grow to 1,670 under the most optimistic scenario, and a downward trend starts there. The July high will not be exceeded because of the deficit of growth drivers."

He said that the oil prices were under the pressure earlier on the week because of a growth of COVID-19 contagion cases in the world and signs of deceleration of economic growth in the U.S. and China. The lockdown removal is no longer significant for the oil price dynamics, and new virus strains make vaccines less effective.

Vernikov put the oil price range guidance at U.S. $68.5–70.

Alor Broker analyst Alexei Antonov said that the overheated Russian market would likely correct downwards after Monday’s high closing despite the oil price fall. The U.S. market fell on Monday, another negative factor.

He said that the metals producers will likely retrench on the back of falling metal prices, while Gazprom can fall after it refused to book extra pipeline capacity in Ukraine.

End