Russian stocks can firm at opening on US–China talks’ progress

MOSCOW, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely edge up at opening on Friday following the trend of foreign markets that were supported by progress in trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, analysts said.

“The state of the external background before the start of trade in Russia can be characterized as weakly positive. This creates conditions for an insignificant growth at the opening of the local stock market,” Vitaly Manzhos, senior risk manager at investment company Algo Capital, said.

According to Bloomberg, a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to sign a trade deal will most probably be held no earlier than April. The information was later confirmed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

According to Mikhail Poddubsky, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, the postponement did not make investors nervous because no new duties are likely to be introduced during the period, and there is progress in negotiations between the U.S. and China. Xinhua reported that China’s Deputy Prime Minister Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Mnuchin attained significant progress during telephone negotiations.

On Friday morning, the U.S. stock market futures grew by up to 0.35%, the Brent price was flat, gold futures added 0.3%, Japan’s Nikkei225 rose 0.9%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.8%.

Finam analyst Sergei Drozdov said that the MOEX Russia was fluctuating in a 2,450–2,500 range for 19 trading sessions, and a breach of the lower bracket can cause significant sales. The RTS support levels are 1,178 and 1,169, and the resistance are 1,192 and 1,202.

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