Russian stocks ease ahead of Fed’s meeting, dull external factors

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (PRIME) – The Russian stock market closed lower on Wednesday wary before Friday’s Fed meeting and following a sluggish global market, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index eased by 0.06% to 3,886.64 and the RTS decreased by 0.44% to 1,653.56.

The global investor sentiment improved on weaker expectations of an upcoming winding down of QE program and approval of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by FDA, Freedom Finance analysts said.

Sergei Kaufman of FINAM Financial Group said that the Russian market was supported by an almost neutral background on the global trading floors waiting for the news about the U.S. Federal Reserve's short-term plans, which its head Jerome Powell may announce on Friday.

Dmitry Babin, stock market expert at BCS Financial Group, said that the global markets remained under the influence of uncertainty related to the Fed’s symposium in Jackson Hole, which starts on Thursday. Many market players expect signals from the event on the Fed's further policy, fearing an imminent tightening of monetary conditions.

“Many have taken a wait-and-see attitude because we are approaching a point where we will probably get clearer information about the cuts,” Daniel Morris, chief market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-0,57	297	8.569
Sberbank	-0,07	324,6	8.517
Norilsk Nickel	-0,28	23 998	2.784
NLMK	+1,33	242,58	2.446
Lukoil	-0,52	6 454	2.343

(74.0375 rubles – U.S. $1)

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