Oil prices pose danger for Russian stock market

According to traders, Friday came as a logical result of the entire lastweek: the market was moving downwards amid low trade volumes. "The lack ofimpetus and ideas on the Russian stock market still makes the RussianTrading System correlate rigidly with western indices. We believe, thistrend will persist next week, too. The source of potential danger for themarket will be oil prices: the OPEC's decision to increase productionquotas coupled with the rumors about a delay in a military operationagainst Iraq may serve as a strong reason for a negative trend of not onlyoil prices, but also of the Russian stock market", experts said. Muchoptimism lies ahead in the second half of September, when after emotionallycharged September 11 the US market may speed down a little in anticipationof large companies' comments on the expected 3rd quarter results, expertspointed out. .