Russian stocks seen opening flat on oil price stabilization

MOSCOW, Apr 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open with marginal changes on Friday on the back of oil price stabilization, analysts said.

"We expect the Russian market to continue consolidating at 2,540,” Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at financial platform Banki.ru, said.

“A better mood on the foreign trading floors will unlikely affect the shares here positively to a significant extent, while some investors may start to take profits on long positions during the session, which can support the downward correction started on Tuesday."

He said that the external background for the session was positive as the nearest Brent futures added 0.4% to U.S. $86.5 per barrel. The leading Asian stock markets grew by 1.1%, the key U.S. futures corrected downwards by 0.2%.

BitRiver financial analyst Vladislav Antonov said that the oil prices have stabilized at a high level, which will balance the effect of decreasing export supplies for the energy stocks.

Russia's inflation statistics for March pointed to deceleration of the price rises, but the trend, although fundamentally positive, will likely last only until May, the analyst said.

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