Market Buzz: Chinese data to affect Russian market

Russian market growth may prove sensitive to Chinese statistics on Thursday, analysts expect.

“If we see good numbers form China on inflation, I think it will help to break this resistant level in the US, in Russia and the market will continue grow,” said Igor Prokhaev, vice-president of Troika Dialog.Russian stocks ended in the black after light trading on Wednesday, as investors have been waiting for news on the Greek rescue deal. The MICEX added 0.36%, while the RTS rose 0.68%.US trades closed with mild gains on Wednesday as investors kept watch on Greek deal amid the lack economic data from the USA. The Dow Jones added less than 0.1%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.2%.Most European stock markets closed lower Wednesday dropping early gains, as Greek leaders’ meeting on a second bailout ended without an agreement. Pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.2%. But European bank shares jumped despite negative trend with Portuguese banks among best performers.Asian shares fell on Thursday after weak data from China and Japan. Chinese consumer prices rose 4.5% in January from the same period last year, exceeding economists’ forecasts of 4.1% rise. Japan’s government issued data showing Japan's core machinery orders fell 7.1% in December compared to a year earlier. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% and the Shanghai Composite moved down 0.3%, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock fell 0.8%, South Korea’s Kospi shed 1%.