Russian stocks fall ahead of US Fed meeting

MOSCOW, May 2 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed lower on Tuesday following a global trend ahead of a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed), analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index declined by 2.07% to 2,580.51, and the RTS index fell by 1.34% to 1,019.67.

"The market mood was cautious on the foreign trading floors on Tuesday. Investors made accessions based on the published macroeconomic data and were waiting for the results of meetings of the European Central Bank and the Fed later in the week," Veles Broker analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said.

"The MOEX Russia Index and the RTS remained below last week’s peaks but were stable in general, while the ruble tested important technical levels confidently," the analyst said.

The U.S. S&P 500 futures lost about 0.1% in the middle of the Russian session ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday, a labor market statistics release on Friday and new quarterly reports. The U.S. legislators continued talks on a state budget debt increase, Kozhukhova said.

The nearest Brent and WTI futures fell about 0.5% on the back of investors' wariness about global economic growth, she said.

In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 decreased by 0.3% after a preliminary report on inflation acceleration in the euro zone in April and a release indicating a slowdown of the manufacturing sector activity, Kozhukhova said.

Alfa Bank's Equity Strategist John Walsh said that the U.S. trade and activity were low ahead of the Fed meeting, and the global markets overall were subdued.

He said that a statement by Ozon CFO’s forecast of a 60% rise of the gross merchandise value and zero earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2023 was among the key events of the day, but the effect on the share price was neutral. The shares declined 0.82%.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.1	240.15	18.215
VTB Bank	-2.66	0.02163	7.321
Gazprom	-1.45	178.5	5.280
Norilsk Nickel	-0.56	14490	4.408
Lukoil	-1.38	4610	3.575

(80.5093 rubles – U.S. $1)

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