Russian stocks to rise on oil prices, favorable environment

MOSCOW, Feb 13 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks are likely to open higher on Monday as rising oil prices and a favorable external background boosted investor sentiment, analysts said.

“The ultimate influence of key factors that provide a significant impact on behavior of the Russian stock market is moderately positive at the beginning of the day. The Brent oil price futures are fluctuating above a U.S. $56 per barrel level thanks to forecasts of the International Energy Agency that the world’s oil reserves are contracting as OPEC members fulfill their oil production cut agreement by 90%,” Oleg Shagov, head of investment company Solid’s research department, said.

The U.S. stock index futures are edging up, the major Asian floors show mostly positive dynamics, and the European trade session’s premarket data points to firmer E.U. stock indices at the beginning of the day. “We expect the Russian market to open in a 2,165 range of the MICEX index and suppose that the indicator may claw back some previous losses during the day thanks to a favorable external background,” Shagov said.

Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at investment company Finam, also said that external bourses are forming a favorable background for the Russian market. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.41% to 19,459.15 as of 9.00 a.m. Moscow time, and China’s CSI300 grew 0.61% to 3,434.35 as of 9.12 a.m. “U.S. President Donald Trump supported the ‘one China’ policy during a phone conversation with the leader of China,” he said.

“Taking into account the favorable condition of external markets, we expect the MICEX index to grow moderately, about 0.5% in the first half of the day. The negative impact on the index from contraction of the share of Gazprom in the MSCI index and not-so-strong January financial report by Sberbank should wear off,” Nigmatullin said.

The Brent oil price lost only 0.07% to U.S. $56.66 per barrel as of 9.18 a.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Anton Manayev, head of the trade operations department at investment company Olma, said that “an upward correction-consolidation is possible at the beginning of the day in highly liquid shares and in the U.S. dollar–ruble pair as well.”

“At the same time, the yield of U.S. treasuries has increased slightly over several past trading sessions, which reflects investor uncertainty about tax reforms that are being prepared by Trump, and the dollar index DXY, which reflects the situation on the world currency market, has once again climbed above a psychologically important level of 100,” Manayev said.

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