Russian stocks stay almost flat on uncertainty over Fed’s minutes

MOSCOW, Aug 22 (PRIME) – The Russian stocks remained almost flat on Thursday as the external background provided no signals for the national market, while minutes of the latest meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System (Fed) caused mixed reaction, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index firmed 0.04% to 2,675.13 and the RTS increased 0.19% to 1,282.63.

“The Russian stock market did not show a noticeable trend today…The Asian and European floors were mixed today, reflecting reaction of investors to the minutes of the July Fed meeting. The fact that the majority of the regulator’s representatives voted for keeping the status quo due to strong economic statistics…disappointed players of the markets,” Sofya Kirsanova, portfolio manager at investment company Raiffeisen Capital, said.

Investors expect Fed’s Chairman Jerome Powell to clarify the situation at a Friday speech in Jackson Hole. The main argument of players that expect the Fed to cut rates in September is that U.S. President Donald Trump criticizes the tough stance of the Fed almost daily, calling for an aggressive softening of the monetary policy, Kirsanova said.

“The national market continued its consolidation. So far, plans of the central banks are unclear, and the trade war is dragging on. Thus, the national indices are calm given low volatility of the commodity market,” Andrei Kochetkov, senior analyst at Otkritie Broker, said.

“The trading day passed without significant pieces of foreign news. At home, one should pay attention to the proposal to increase MET on oil and introduction of MET on associated gas,” Algo Capital’s senior risk manager Vitaly Manzhos said.

The Finance Ministry plans to use the measure to compensate shortfalls in budget revenue from tax exemptions for the Priobskoye field, on which oil companies Rosneft and Gazprom Neft would jointly save about 60 billion rubles per year in the next 10 years. The tax exemptions for the two companies may be compensated by a higher fiscal burden on the entire oil sector, Manzhos said.

Rosneft lost 1.07% to 406 rubles, Bashneft shrank 0.19% to 1,830 rubles, and Gazprom Neft fell 1.43% to 414.20 rubles.

Manzhos also said that shares of metals and mining group Mechel and shares of its subsidiary coal producer Raspadskaya outperformed the market after a meeting of President Vladimir Putin with governors of Russia’s coal-producing regions. At the meeting, the Energy Ministry said that Russia’s coal output will rise to 550–670 million tonnes until 2035 from 440 million tonnes.

Mechel’s ordinary shares gained 3.38% to 58.15 rubles and preferred shares rose 1.59% to 89.60 rubles, while Raspadskaya grew 0.85% to 130.40 rubles.

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

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.40	219.50	10.024
Gazprom	+0.36	232.06	6.156
Norilsk Nickel	+2.25	15460.00	3.656
Lukoil	-0.06	5275.00	3.166
Polyus	-0.11	7236.00	1.419

(66.2630 rubles – U.S. $1)

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