Russian stocks to open flat because other bourses closed

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks are likely to open unchanged on Saturday as the external background provides no signals because only the national market will be open today, analysts said.

“The Russian stock market will trade completely on its own on Saturday, this is why it can only price in the ideas of the previous trading day that have already been largely priced in. The statements of the U.S. president against Russia were an expected event meaning the initial negative reaction should wind down,” Andrei Kochetkov, lead analyst for global research at Otkritie Broker, said.

“As for everything else, it is difficult to expect a strong market movement when there is no trade in the entire world and the information background is scarce. Consequently, the most probable scenario for the upcoming day is consolidation.”

Natalya Pyryeva, analyst at investment company Finam, said the market will be guided by the release of the central bank’s report on the monetary policy. Companies are preparing for a long weekend, and retailer Lenta, metals and mining company Evraz, and Russia’s second largest bank VTB are to publish their financial reports calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) next week, Pyryeva said.

Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, also said that the MOEX Russia Index should start the day little changed and later switch into consolidation because of the lack of the external background, but this does not mean that there would be no speculative movements in some shares.

“We expect the MOEX Russia Index to open with a moderate change of around 0.1–0.3% in the range of 3,445–3,470. The levels of 3,440 and 3,420 will act as the closest support, while 3,480 and 3,500 will become the resistance,” Manzhos said.

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