Russian stocks seen pressured by global negativity, to follow oil prices

MOSCOW, Apr 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may again spend the day in the negative territory following dynamics of crude prices on Thursday, but attempts to recover to counter previous losses are also possible, analysts said.

“The external background prior to the Russian stock market’s trading session is seen as modestly negative… The Russian benchmarks may start the day negatively, but a deep fall seen last day raises the probability of a technical rebound,” Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said.

Senior analyst at Promsvyazbank Bogdan Zvarich expects attempts to recover on the local market with the MOEX Russia Index returning to the 2,500–2,550 range, but a further fall in oil prices may drag the domestic benchmarks again to the negative territory.

Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said that the technical analysis data points to the possibility of deeper correction of the RTS index to the psychologically important mark of 1,000.

The market will also be driven by releases of operating results reports for January–March by steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), children goods retailer Detsky Mir, and realty developer Etalon, as well as IFRS financial results for 2019 by Highland Gold Mining.

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