Russian stocks ease as investors fear no US Fed’s rate cut

MOSCOW, Jul 8 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks contracted on Monday following the Asian markets hit by robust economic statistics of the U.S., which reduced the possibility of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) cutting its rates at the July meeting, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index fell 0.45% to 2,822.55, while the RTS increased only 0.06% to 1,399.55.

“The Asian markets were in focus today, and the stock floors there experienced sales with the index of the Asia–Pacific markets outside Japan shrinking 1.4%, and China’s CSI300 losing 2.32%. The stock markets fell on the background of a continuous uncertainty of investors about the prospects of the U.S.–China trade, the monetary policy, and incomes of corporations,” Yaroslav Kabakov, director for strategy at investment company Finam, said.

The initial guidance for the trade in Asia was higher than expected U.S. non-farm payrolls, which reduced the probability of a rate cut by a high margin at the July 30–31 meeting, Kabakov said.

Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at Promsvyazbank, also said that the European and U.S. stock markets fell, supporting sales in Russian shares, but oil prices provided support for the national market.

The Brent oil price gained 0.634% to U.S. $64.64 per barrel as of 6.13 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange.

Konstantin Bushuyev, head of the market analysis department at Otkritie Broker, said that mobile operator MTS and hydropower giant RusHydro were among the losers due to dividend cut-offs.

MTS lost 5.74% to 268.60 rubles, while RusHydro fell 4.79% to 0.5917 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Gazprom	-0.95	248.51	9.771
Sberbank	+0.19	243.30	6.925
VTB	+2.89	0.04255	3.747
Lukoil	-1.88	5357.50	3.629
Magnit	+2.67	3935.00	1.536

(63.5841 rubles – U.S. $1)

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