Russian stocks mixed on Fed’s expectations, ruble growth

MOSCOW, Jul 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Wednesday as the MOEX Russia Index consolidated because the global investors were waiting for the U.S. federal Reserve System (Fed) to decide on its monetary policy, while ruble’s growth resulted in a slight increase of the RTS Index, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index eased by 0.17% to 2,970.42 and the RTS firmed by 0.02% to 1,038.74.

“The Russian stock market started trading in the red zone, then switched into the green zone, but failed to hold there and returned to the red zone. Nevertheless, the MOEX Russia Index hit a new annual high of 2,982.47 … Besides (growth of Ozon’s securities), the market experienced cautious consolidation,” Otkritie Broker’s leading analyst for global research Andrei Kochetkov said.

Online marketplace Ozon gained 2.48% to 2,414 rubles on the news that it will invest 5.5 billion rubles in logistics centers in Kazakhstan and the Tula Region, which should strengthen the company’s position on the market and speed up delivery from Kazakhstan in the framework of parallel imports, he said.

“The MOEX Russia Index closed the session near the level of the beginning of the day, while the RTS Index rose on the background of the ruble’s growth,” Dmitry Postolenko, head of managing company Pervaya’s department for managing of securities with fixed income, said.

“The market players all around the world are waiting for the Fed to decide on its further monetary conditions. The consensus opinion is that the regulator will again raise the key rate by 0.25 percentage points after a pause in June. If the actual decision falls in line with the expectations, it will cause the U.S. dollar to grow and have a moderately negative impact on the shares and on risk appetite in general,” Natalya Milchakova, leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global, said.

The shares of metals and mining group Mechel gained 5.55% to 201.60 rubles on the investors’ expectations of a robust semiannual financial report, Milchakova said.

Gold producer Seligdar lost 3.92% to 74.03 rubles in a correction after several trading sessions of growth, she said.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Seligdar	-3.92	74.03	7.678
Magnit	-0.25	5885.00	7.159
Sberbank	-0.11	246.92	6.006
Lukoil	-0.18	5623.50	4.024
Mechel	+5.55	201.60	3.129

(90.0945 rubles – U.S. $1)

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