Russian stocks seen growing as US, China say reach trade deal

MOSCOW, Dec 16 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market will likely open higher on reports that the U.S. and China had reached a trade agreement, analysts said.

“U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer confirmed last Sunday that the first part of a deal with Beijing will be signed at the beginning of January, adding that the document had been formulated and translated. In this context, the new week on global stock markets will start moderately positively,” Finam analyst Sergei Drozdov said.

Washington will not introduce new duties, although it will keep 25% duties on Chinese imports amounting to about U.S. $250 billion and 7.5% duties on $120 billion of goods. China will raise purchases of U.S. agricultural products by $50 billion per year. The U.S. can introduce duties if China fails to comply, but the sides did not disclose the conditions.

Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said that China published comparably strong retail and industrial output data, which eases concern about a slowdown of the global economic growth.

According to Drozdov, the support level for the MOEX Russia Index stands at 2,980 and 2,960. The resistance notch is 3,000–3,010. The local support level for the RTS index stands at 1,490 and 1,460, and resistance at 1,490–1,460.

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