Stocks seen growing at opening as foreign market panic fades

MOSCOW, Mar 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open higher on Friday as the foreign markets are recovering after a banking crisis, and the oil prices are rising, analysts said.

"The external background is moderately positive today," senior trader at managing company Alfa-Capital Vladislav Silayev said.

"Panic on the markets seems to be gradually fading. The Asian markets are buying, the S&P 500 futures went up during pre-market trading. The oil sector is recovering. A barrel of Brent grew to U.S. $75.46. Gold has strengthened to $1,934 per Troy ounce. The buyers are active in silver and platinum," he said.

Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst for global research at Otkritie Research, said that investors expect that the OPEC would reduce output on the back of growth of the global commercial reserves in the first months of 2023.

According to Silayev, the market will wait for a meeting of the board of directors of the central bank and a key rate decision later in the day.

Alexander Arutyunyan, chief economist of investment company Russ-Invest, said that the central bank will likely keep the key rate, because on the one hand, the situation in the economy has normalized to some extent, while on the other hand, there is significant deficit of the federal budget, and the ruble has weakened triggering higher inflation.

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