Russian stocks decrease on doubts over US–China trade deal signing

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market fell on Thursday on the back of media reports that a peaceful settlement of a trade dispute between China and the U.S. became doubtful, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.59% to 2,893.98, and the RTS index decreased 0.63% to 1,422.92.

“The Russian stock market indices retrenched from the peaks of the day in the middle of the trading day and eased due to the deterioration of the external background and profit taking in some shares,” Yelena Kozhukhova, analyst at Veles Capital, said.

“The external background was moderately negative in the middle of the day… Pessimism on the commodities and stock markets was caused by media reports about China’s doubts in the possibility of signing of a trade deal with the U.S. because some disagreements remained. At the same time, it was earlier reported that China was ready to sign the first stage of the deal in spite of cancellation of a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Chile in November,” Kozhukhova said.

Bloomberg reported that Chinese state officials said in a private conversation that they would not “budge on the thorniest issues.” Besides, they were concerned with the impulsive nature of U.S. President Donald Trump and about chances that he would not agree even with a deal of a limited scope that the sides had preliminarily agreed to sign.

The oil prices decreased 0.5–1.0%, falling beyond the U.S. $60 threshold for Brent and the $55 one for WTI, which, according to Kozhukhova, was an additional negative factor for the Russian market.

Otkritie Broker analyst Andrei Kochetkov said that Russia reported that it had fulfilled the OPEC plus nonmember oil output reduction agreement by only 73% in October, producing 11.23 million barrels per day, which pressurized the oil prices.

Kochetkov said that investors started to take profit in Gazprom, after it peaked at 267.4 rubles per share.

Sberbank’s growth faded after the bank published a report under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) with the profit rising only 6.3% it July–September, Kochetkov said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-0.61	260	23.515
Sberbank	-1.93	234.89	14.333
Lukoil	+1.19	5919.5	7.670
Norilsk Nickel	-1.67	17888	4.398
Surgutneftegas	-0.92	43	2.169

(63.8734 rubles – U.S. $1)

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