Russian stocks seen edging up on growing oil prices

MOSCOW, May 8 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely firm at the start of Wednesday’s trading session thanks to growing oil prices, but the upward movement will be curbed by expectations of Thursday’s U.S.–China trade negotiations, analysts said.

“Trading will most probably start with insignificant growth, after which investors will have a wait-and-see attitude, measuring the chance for further deterioration (or improvement) in the negotiations between Washington and Beijing,” Alexei Korenev, investment company Finam’s analyst, said.

Vadim Kravchuk, analyst as investment company Solid, said that growth of oil prices will be a positive factor for the market. Brent rose 0.54% to U.S. $70.26 as of 9:18 a.m., Moscow time.

Senior Analyst of Promsvyazbank Mikhail Poddubsky said that at the end of last week, the last round of the U.S.–China negotiations was seen as a formality before signing a trade deal but the situation changed as, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, China amended the deal in a way which cancels the settlement. Media reported that the changes concerned copyright.

The next round of the China-U.S. negotiations will be held on Thursday and Friday and according to Poddubsky, might be the last chance to strike a deal.

According to Olma’s senior analyst Anton Startsev, a sudden fall of China’s trade surplus in April is also a negative factor for the global market but a seasonally lower trade volume in Russia will partially neutralize this trend.

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