Russian stocks to open mixed on growing oil prices, lack of ideas

MOSCOW, Apr 20 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may open with a mixed trend on Monday, because the RTS will benefit from oil price growth, while the MICEX may sag a little on a lack of ideas for rise continuation, analysts said.

“The foreign-currency denominated RTS may gain 0.5% at the opening, while the ruble-bound MICEX will open with virtually no changes as compared with the Friday’s closing,” IT Invest analyst Vasily Oleinik said.

The MICEX has faced a lack of fresh ideas for growth, and investors will be likely to be consolidating gains in the beginning of the week, Promsvyazbank’s analysts Ilya Frolov and Yevgeny Loktyukhov said. The oil and gas and the financial sector may suffer most from this new trend, they said.

The Brent oil price rose 1.12% to U.S. $64.16 per barrel as of 9.28 a.m. Moscow time, which will support Russian stocks, the Promsvyazbank’s analysts said.

The Russian market has chances for growth on Monday because the previous negative dynamics of Western floors has already taken its toll on Russian indices, Oleinik said.

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