Russian stocks to fall at opening on negative environment

MOSCOW, Jan 30 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks are likely to contract at Monday’s opening as oil prices are falling and the external background provides only negative signals, analysts said.

“The ultimate influence of the key factors that provide a significant impact on behavior of the Russian stock market is moderately negative at the beginning of the day. Prices for March future of Brent oil are falling as data on the amount of U.S. active drilling rigs showed an annual high figure,” Oleg Shagov, head of investment company Solid’s research department, said.

The U.S. stock index futures are also easing, and major Asian floors are in the red zone. “We expect the Russian stock market to open close to a 2,260 point range of the MICEX index and suppose that the stock indicator may experience a downward correction after four consecutive trade sessions of growth,” Shagov said.

Anton Manayev, head of investment company Olma’s trade operations department, said that Friday’s growth may be offset partially at the beginning of the day.

The background provides no reasons for an upward movement, because many uncertainties remain regarding the situation in Ukraine, Syria and the U.S. sanctions. Different comments around the January 28 telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump also don’t make the situation clearer, Manayev said.

“Taking into account a holiday in China, the major Asian guidance for our players is the situation on the Japanese market, where the Nikkei 225 index is losing 0.6% due to poor retail sales data, which fell 0.6% against an expected growth of 1.3%,” Bodgan Zvarich, an analyst at investment company Finam, said.

This negative background favors a 0.2% drop of Russian indices at the beginning of the day, Zvarich said.

Shagov said that investors will focus their attention on monetary policy decisions of the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the U.S. Federal Reserve System and the Russian central bank this week. Among local events that may have an impact on trade, he noted reports on operating results of hydropower giant RusHydro and uncut diamond mining giant ALROSA.

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