Russian stocks to edge up at opening on oil, US futures growth

MOSCOW, Jun 19 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely edge up at opening on Friday morning thanks to rising prices for oil and U.S. futures, analysts said. 

"The external background in the morning is weakly positive: the U.S. futures rose by up to 0.2%, oil is traded at about U.S. $42 per barrel. The start of trade in the morning can be weakly positive, taking into account the excessive sales (earlier) and closing of short positions," Alor Broker senior analyst Alexei Antonov said.

The foreign markets closed mixed on Thursday. According to Sergei Drozdov, analyst at investment company Finam, investor wariness was prompted by weak U.S. labor market data and news about the new COVID-19 contagion cases with the Florida cases rising faster than last week on average and the Texas hospital admissions showing a record rise for a seventh day in a row.

Quarterly expiration of U.S. futures and options usually adds volatility to the markets, so investors should be prepared for this on Friday, while benchmarks will probably choose the trend next week, Drozdov said.

Brent rose by 1.89% to $41.48 on Thursday on the news that Iraq and Kazakhstan presented plans to catch up with the production cut schedule in July–September, the analyst said.

Drozdov set the local MOEX Russia Index support level at 2,690–2,670, resistance at 2,750–2,800. The RTS local support levels are 1,194 and 1,175 and resistance 1,220.

Georgy Vashchenko, head of the department for trade operations on the Russian stock market at investment company Freedom Finance, said that a meeting of the board of directors of the Russian central bank will be in focus on Friday. He estimated the key rate cut at 0.75 percentage points or more as inflation is firmly below 3% and inflation expectations are anchored.

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