Russian stocks to grow on high oil prices, favorable environment

MOSCOW, Apr 19 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks are likely to open higher on Thursday as rising oil prices and a favorable external background support bulls at the local market, analysts said.

Vitaly Manzhos, a senior risk manager at investment company Nord Capital, said that the background for the Russian market is positive at the beginning of the day. The U.S. stock index futures rose within 0.3%, the Brent oil price gained about 0.6% in the morning after Wednesday’s jump of more than 2.5%, Japan’s Nikkei225 index went up 0.3% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng grew 1.5%.

“We expect a positive opening of the MOEX Russia index with an increase of about 0.4–0.7% close to a 2,255 mark. The levels of 2,240 and 2,230 will act as the closest support, while the levels of 2,280 and 2,300 will act as significant resistance,” Manzhos said.

Igor Kovalyov, an analyst at InstaForex, said that geopolitical tensions around Russia eased somewhat after Washington suspended new sanctions, while Moscow hinted at its readiness to compromise with the U.S. administration and also delayed approval of a countersanctions bill.

Mikhail Poddubsky, a senior analyst of Promsvyazbank’s debt markets research group, said that the news flow for the ruble and ruble assets has significantly improved lately.

“Firstly, our Foreign Ministry confirmed receipt of notification from the American authorities that the U.S. plans no new sanctions. After that, SWIFT CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt said that Russia would not be switched off the system due to the sanctions,” Poddubsky said.

Manzhos also said that the release of the U.S. jobless claims statistics could have an impact on the trade later in the day.

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