Russian stocks close neutrally ahead of US Fed meeting

MOSCOW, Sep 18 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with marginal changes on Wednesday as global investors were avoiding deals ahead of a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed), analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.08% to 2,818.60, and the RTS index increased 0.05% to 1,382.16.

“The Russian stock market did not see strong dynamics after a too active start of the week… global stock markets also showed a modest dynamics (Asian indices finished the day with 0.5% downward to upward gaps and the European markets saw a small rise),” Sofya Kirsanova, portfolio manager at investment company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

She said that investors avoided deals ahead of a meeting of the U.S. Fed on Wednesday, after closing of the Russian trading session. “Since the consensus shows a 100% certainty of the participants in Fed rate decline in September, the key question and doubts of investors are drawn to the rhetoric of Jerome Powell (chairman of the Fed) which will clarify what is to be expected from the next meetings of the ruler.”

Kirsanova said that oil quotations were slightly growing on Wednesday after a downward correction on Tuesday. The prices returned to the level of the beginning of the last week after the energy minister of Saudi Arabia said that the country would restore the majority of the lost output until the end of the month.

Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said that oil companies predominated among the Russian market outsiders on Wednesday.

Power companies and metals producers erased the losses received earlier this week, he said.

According to Kochetkov, Sberbank’s shares were under pressure as the bank plans to revise the approach to commissions until the end of the year and may connect to the central bank’s rapid payment system. If it does, the commission income of Sberbank can fall dramatically, which would cause a further slowdown of the profit rise.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Wednesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.25	235.3	6.027
Surgutneftegas	-2.61	35.505	3.197
Lukoil	-0.1	5467	3.129
Gazprom	-0.05	233.46	2.863
Norilsk Nickel	+1.71	16100	2.399

(64.1213 rubles – U.S. $1)

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