Russian securities stable despite foreign market storms

A storm is engulfing American markets, drowning the remains of optimism. WorldCom's bankruptcy and unpromising US trade deficit data will obviously lead to new attacks on the dollar and values nominated in the US currency. At the same time, Russian securities are courageously getting through the storm on foreign markets, although they cannot ignore global trends altogether, experts think. The continuing attractiveness of the Russian market is due to a combination of macroeconomic stability and the improvement of corporate governance standards at Russian companies. "An increasing number of companies, even medium ones, are striving to become public, and the aim of raising capitalization becomes a priority for large Russian businesses," the experts pointed out. "Nonetheless, we are concerned about a statement by OPEC representatives on their intention to start a price war against independent oil producers, including Russia, whose position on the world oil market has strengthened. If this happens, oil prices may be seriously depressed at the end of the year, which is bound to have a negative effect on the Russian stock market. However, it is still early to draw any final conclusions," the analysts added. The forecast for today is negative, and traders view Norilsk Nickel shares, for which there is a stable demand, as a 'shelter.' The oil chips have been performing worse than the market in general lately because of the LUKoil auction and profit taking, and this situation may continue for some more time. Selective domestic demand for RAO UES shares has been reported, but judging from the Friday trading, the buyers are out of money. Experts reckon that in the short-term, RAO UES shares will perform the same as the market in general.

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