Russian stocks seen rising as talks with US seem fruitful

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely increase on Monday at the start of the day session, because there was no escalation of hostile rhetoric at the start of peace talks with the U.S., analysts said.

"A meeting with the U.S. on Russia's safety guarantees started yesterday. After yesterday's dinner with the U.S. diplomats, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the beginning awesome. There is hope that the Russia–U.S. and Russia–NATO meetings will finish successfully for us, which will remove the political risks," Alor Broker senior analyst Alexei Antonov said.

He added that the oil prices near U.S. $82 per barrel also support the ruble assets.

Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at Banki.ru, said that investors continued to reassess the future of the U.S. rates and are worried about a more proactive toughening of the monetary policy, which will hit the risky assets.

High contagionness of the omicron strain of the coronavirus still causes concern, he said.

According to Antonov, Sberbank and Lukoil are the growth leaders of Monday's morning session, adding more than 1%. The Moscow Exchange and Gazprom can catch up with them, while Rosneft may see the biggest capitalization gain on an increase of production agreed by the OPEC plus.

The MOEX Russia Index would likely exceed 3,800 but it is unclear how long the political background will be favorable, he added. 

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