Russian stocks seen rising on oil price, foreign markets growth

MOSCOW, Jul 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely edge up at opening on Wednesday on the back of an oil price and foreign markets increase, analysts said.

"An increase of the RTS index is possible today at the start of trade following the global indices," Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said.

Finam analyst Alexei Korenev said that the market will focus on a meeting of the OPEC plus agreement participants, who plan to ease output restrictions to 7.7 million barrels per day.

Korenev said that the oil prices surged after the American Petroleum Institute (API) said that weekly U.S. oil reserves decreased to minus 8.322 million barrels from 2 million barrels. The U.S. Energy Department will release final data in the evening.

The Brent oil blend rose by 0.44% to U.S. $43.09 per barrel as of 8:28 a.m., Moscow time on Wednesday.

Startsev said that the situation on foreign markets improved on Tuesday as a test of a vaccine for the COVID-19 produced by company Moderna was successful and allows to hold more large-scale tests.

Alor Broker analyst Alexei Antonov said that Gazprom will trade without dividends for the first day pressing the entire market.

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