Russian stocks to fall on media reports about new US sanctions

MOSCOW, Apr 15 (PRIME) -- The stock market are likely to open lower on mass media reports about U.S. plans to impose sanctions on the Russian state debt on Thursday, analysts said.

 “According to Reuters’ information, the U.S. may announce introduction of new sanctions against Russian companies and individuals. Reports also say that restrictions on operations of the U.S. financial institutions with Russian state debt are possible as well. The ruble reacted to the news with a noticeable fall this morning,” Dmitry Monastyrshin, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, said.

Investors will focus on the sanction news early in the day, he said.

“The shares of two companies that foreigners love – Norilsk Nickel that plummeted by 2% and Sberbank that lost 0.25% – were a very worrying factor (on Wednesday),” Alor Broker senior analyst Alexei Antonov said.

“Weakness of the metal giant could be explained by previous growth and strengthening of the ruble, but Sberbank’s fall triggered thoughts that it was too early to speak about a new upward trend on the Russian market.

“These concerns were confirmed this morning, as the Western media reported that the U.S. plans to sanction the Russian state debt by prohibiting U.S. banks to buysecurities of the Russian Finance Ministry. It is very likely that the U.S. credit institutions will join the measures.”

Otherwise the external background is positive, as the futures for the U.S. stock indices rose by 0.2%, the prices for commercial and precious metals except nickel rose, and the oil prices are stable. But it will not have any positive impact on the Russian market at least in the first half of Thursday’s trade, Antonov added.

End %%md/jst%%