Russian stocks to open flat on Friday on no strong drivers

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to start the Friday trade session without any significant changes because of a lack of strong drivers at the time when the trade activity is expected to be low during the final trade day of the year, analysts said.

Alexei Antonov, head of Alor Broker’s investment consulting department, said that the Russian stock market should experience no serious changes on Friday.

The ruble grew significantly against the U.S. dollar on Thursday following the central bank’s announcement that it would sell 11.8 billion rubles of foreign currency per day in January–June 2024 in addition to 0.8 billion rubles it would sell in January, doubling the market expectations.

“A strong ruble is a negative factor for the market where exporting companies dominate. Still, the MOEX Russia Index closed without a noticeable change (on Thursday) in spite of the ruble’s growth and a 2% contraction of the oil price. We don’t expect any serious changes of the index to happen today,” Alor Broker’s Antonov said.

The analysts of Cifra Broker said in a research note that the mood of players on the foreign stock floors were neutral on Friday morning. The Japanese index Nikkei 225 was losing 0.54%, while China’s Shanghai Composite was gaining 0.26%, the analysts said.

“The MOEX Russia Index grew by 0.15% to 3,101.99, while the RTS Index rose by 2.08% to 1,090.93. The RTS Index outperformed the MOEX Russia Index thanks to the ruble’s strengthening. The Russian stock market managed to restart the growth and switch into the green zone (on Thursday) in spite of the ruble’s strengthening and the fall of the oil prices. The index stays in the range of 3,080–3,115, and it is ready to leave the range, but it is a question whether the buyers would be active during the last trade session of the year,” BitRiver’s financial analyst Vladislav Antonov said.

The U.S. dollar grew on Thursday amid the geopolitical tensions in the Red Sea calming down, and this caused the Brent oil price to fall to U.S. $77.4 per barrel, and the market even ignored an unexpected expansion of the U.S. oil reserves by 6.9 million barrels. The trade in oil on Friday started with a growth, and the ruble also fell by 1% against the U.S. dollar to 90.32 rubles at the opening of the trade session, Antonov said.

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