Rising global trade threats to pull Russian stocks down at opening

MOSCOW, Sep 25 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may open slightly lower on Tuesday amid further escalation of the U.S.–China trade dispute and expectations of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s key rate decision, analysts said.

“The Russian stock market is likely to edge down slightly at opening due to the negative dynamics of major benchmarks in light of an escalating trade conflict between the U.S. and China, but expensive crude will still support the local indices,” Forex Club analyst Ivan Marchena said.

He added that the Brent oil price is consolidating above a psychologically important mark of U.S. $80 per barrel after the OPEC+ ministerial monitoring committee had retained an output target at 100% implementation of the deal to cut oil output for a few months.

Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev expected investor activity on the Russian stock market to cool down in the next few days ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s key rate decision which is to be announced late on Wednesday.

Startsev saw a continuing upward trend of the RTS Index, but said the benchmark’s overbuy risks rise.

The market will also be driven by decisions on the transformation strategy made by the board of directors of grocery retailer Magnit.

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