Russian stocks to consolidate ahead of cbank, US Fed meetings

MOSCOW, Sep 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market is likely to open flat and consolidate later on Wednesday due to investor wariness ahead of monetary policy decision announcements by national and global regulators, analysts said.

“The external background looks moderately positive, but there are no reasons for any significant rally yet. A consolidation period is possible in the short term, because demand for ruble assets has been highly influenced by a weak U.S. dollar so traders are focused on the up-coming meeting of (Russia’s) central bank on Friday and the U.S. Federal Reserve System on September 19 and 20,” Olma senior analyst Anton Startsev said.

Oleg Shagov, head of investment company Solid’s research department, said he expects the MICEX to open flat in a 2,055–2,060 range and to fluctuate around the level reached in the past several days of growth.

Shagov sees the global background to be neutral with Brent oil futures trading at about $54.1 per barrel pressured by the U.S. crude inventories statistics by the American Petroleum Institute (API), demonstrating a significant rise.

The main U.S. benchmarks futures are easing, while Asian markets look mixed. The European premarket trading points to a slight decline at opening.

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