Russian stocks to open flat on lack of impact from background

MOSCOW, Feb 28 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to start the day little changed as the neutral background does not provide significant momentum for either purchases or sales, analysts said.

“The global market mood on Tuesday morning can be described as neutral. The leading Asian bourses show no significant changes, the futures for the U.S. indices consolidate around the closing levels, and the next futures for the Brent oil gains 0.3% to U.S. $82.3 per barrel,” financial platform Banki.ru’s senior analyst Bogdan Zvarich said.

The background does not prompt any kind of movement of the Russian stock market, Zvarich said.

Algo Capital senior risk manager Vitaly Manzhos also said that the external background creates conditions for the Russian market to open with only a moderate change.

“We expect trading in Russia to start with a moderate change of no more than 0.5% of the MOEX Russia Index in the range of 2,230–2,250. The levels of 2,220 and 2,200 will act as the closest support, while 2,260 and 2,280 will become the resistance,” Manzhos said.

Alexei Antonov, head of Alor Broker’s investment consulting department, said that the MOEX Russia Index gained 1.5% on Monday because the Western sanctions were not as severe as expected, and the index ended the day at its intra-day high, which means that investor demand was not exhausted entirely.

“But speculative profit taking in the shares of the Moscow Exchange and Sberbank may prevent the index from growing further, and serious drivers are necessary in order to prevent that from happening,” Antonov said.

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