Russian stocks to grow on oil price rise, Fed chair upcoming speech

MOSCOW, Oct 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will increase slightly at the opening of the trading session on Friday on the back of a small oil price increase and investors’ expectations of a speech by Chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) Janet Yellen, analysts said.

“We expect a market opening with an insignificant increase of about 0.1–0.2% of the MICEX in the range between 1,975 and 1,980. The levels of 1,970 and 1,960 will be the closest support levels and the notches of 1,990, 2,000 will be levels of a significant resistance,” Vitaly Manzhos, a senior analyst at Bank Obrazovanie, said.

According to Manzhos, the MICEX will likely demonstrate a marginal dynamics throughout the day, while market participants will be waiting for significant external signals.

TeleTrade analyst Mikhail Poddubsky said that the oil output and reserves figures by the U.S. Energy Department caused turmoil on the oil market. The Brent futures firstly fell but then recovered and continued a gradual growth.

Brent rose 0.21% to U.S. $52.14 per barrel as of 9:32 a.m., Moscow time.

The euro zone’s trade surplus for August will be released at noon, Moscow time. The U.S. will post the retail statistics and producers’ prices for September at 3:30 p.m., Moscow time. After that, the Michigan University will publish the preliminary consumer sentiment index for October and the business inventories figures for August, which can provide important insights to investors worldwide, Finam analysts said.

A Yellen speech after the Russian market closing, at 7:30 p.m., will be the key event of the day, to which investors will be preparing, the Finam analysts said.

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