Russian stocks decrease with risky assets ahead of US Fed meeting

MOSCOW, Nov 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market declined on Tuesday together with the rest of the risky assets, as investors were wary ahead of a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed), analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index eased by 0.33% to 4,207.53, and the RTS index decreased by 0.87% to 1,850.83.

"The morning on the Russian market was quite positive but sales started to predominate by the middle of the day,” Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst for global analysis at Otkritie Research, said.

“The Russian and foreign markets prepared for the meeting of the U.S. Fed. The risky assets were under the pressure most of all. Oil and industrial metals decreased."

The analyst said that the market expected no surprises from the meeting but a new statement that inflation ceased to be a short-term issue could deepen the fears of more aggressive monetary policy toughening. He added that the Russian central bank sent the same signals weakening the Russian shares.

The Brent oil blend almost reached U.S. $85 but decreased. Nevertheless, since the OPEC plus deal participants struggle to raise output, there are still chances of an oil price rise, Kochetkov said.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, said that the October data of the OPEC plus deal members showed a weaker than expected output increase. Still, the leading oil consumers submit weak statistics, which is why the market is concerned with poor demand.

According to Kochetkov, most of Russian sectors rose but oil and gas pressured the market.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-1.72	352.91	14.430
Sberbank	+0.06	371.17	13.158
Lukoil	-0.64	7246.5	6.610
ALROSA	+1.23	132.04	4.449
Rosneft	-1.8	630.35	3.361

(71.4783 – U.S. $1)

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