Unfavorable global mood may drive Russian stocks down at opening

MOSCOW, Feb 22 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to open and trade lower on Thursday ahead of Defenders of Fatherland Day celebration and because of a negative foreign environment, analysts said.

“We expect the Russian stock market to open down in a 2,305-2,310 range of the MOEX Russian Index and believe that the benchmark is likely to break below a psychologically important mark of 2,300 if the foreign background remains unfavorable and ahead of long holidays,” Oleg Shagov, head of investment company Solid’s research department, said.

Russia will celebrate Defenders of Fatherland Day on Friday.

Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said that low investor activity due to the upcoming holidays may force the RTS index to decline despite a generally persistent interest to emerging markets.

Shagov said that the major U.S. benchmarks futures and the Asian stock exchanges are falling. The European pre-market trading also points to a lower start of trade.

The market may also be driven by an IFRS financial report for 2017 of crude producer Gazprom Neft and a conference call on IFRS results for 2017 planned by independent gas producer Novatek.

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