Russian stocks seen opening lower as oil prices contract

MOSCOW, Jul 8 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to start Thursday’s trade lower  as the oil prices contract, analysts said.

“On Wednesday, the MOEX Russia Index failed to stay above 3,900 as the oil prices started to fall reducing risk appetite. Only the increase of the U.S. indices helped the index to stay in the green. … Now, the oil price eases. The oil price growth is likely to stop for a couple of days, which will trigger a moderate correction of the Russian stock market,” Alor Broker’s senior analyst Alexei Antonov said.

The Brent oil price lost 0.34% to U.S. $73.18 per barrel as of 9.01 a.m. Moscow time on Thursday, according to the ICE exchange.

“We expect the MOEX Russia Index to start the day with a moderate contraction within 0.1–0.5% in the range of 3,875–3890. The levels of 3,870 and 3,850 will become the closest support, while 3,900 and 3,920 will remain the resistance. After a moderately negative start of the day, the MOEX Russia Index may switch into consolidation, as the external background is not weak enough to stimulate aggressive sales in the shares of Russian companies,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, said.

Apart from falling oil Manzhos mentioned decreasing futures for the U.S. stock indices and gold, the Chinese index Shanghai Composite and the Japanese index Nikkei225.

In the second half of the day, the local players will track releases of macro statistics data from the U.S., including weekly primary jobless claims and oil and oil products reserves, he said.

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