Russian stocks to open flat amid stable oil prices

MOSCOW, Oct 17 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks are likely to open flat on Monday on the back of a lackluster foreign background, including a little changing oil price, ahead of the start of the trading session, analysts said.

“We see the ultimate influence of key external factors that provide a significant impact on the behavior of the Russian stock market as close to neutral at the beginning of the day. The Brent oil price is fluctuating close to a $52 per barrel level…The U.S. stock index futures are edging down, while the main Asian floors are showing no single dynamics,” Oleg Shagov, head of the analytical department at investment company Solid, said.

Given the neutral background, the Russian stock market may open close to 1,965 of the MICEX index and mainly track oil prices during the day, Shagov said.

“Further consolidation of the RTS index is the most possible scenario at the beginning of the day, as no grounds for serious movements of the market have emerged so far. The ambiguous tone of a speech by the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) head in Boston on Friday had a somewhat cooling effect on the activity of global investors,” Anton Startsev, a senior analyst at investment company Olma, said.

Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, said that the Fed’s Chairwoman Janet Yellen said almost nothing about the possibility of an increase of the key rate at the next meeting on November 1–2, meaning the probability of the increase has not changed and the U.S. dollar’s index is stable.

“Judging by the mixed external background, a stable movement of oil prices and an empty corporate calendar, we may expect a close to zero dynamics of the MICEX index at the beginning of the day,” Nigmatullin said.

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