Stocks may fall on investor worries about US-China trade war

MOSCOW, Apr 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks are likely to contract on Tuesday on investor concerns with consequences of a trade war between the U.S. and China, analysts said.

“Technical analysis shows that the RTS index may continue its way toward the low point of its descending movement range at the beginning of the day. Trade dynamics on the world bourses show that global traders favor bonds before shares as they are worried by consequences of trade wars and by some overheated sectors of the market,” Anton Startsev, a senior analyst at investment company Olma, said.

The U.S. stock indices slumped 1.9–2.7% on Monday, and the Asian floors are in the red zone on Tuesday morning. The Brent oil price gained 0.22% to U.S. $67.79 per barrel as of 9.11 a.m. Moscow time, according to the ICE exchange, after losing over 3.80% on Monday.

“The oil market was under pressure from escalation of the trade war between China and the U.S. On Sunday, China introduced import duties on American goods. Experts think that the trade war may lead to contraction of demand for oil,” Vladislav Antonov, an analyst at Alpari, said.

But Vitaly Manzhos, a senior risk manager at investment company Nord Capital, expects a neutral start of trade with the MOEX Russia Index changing insignificantly in a 2,255–2,260 range.

“The levels of 2,250 and 2,240 points will become the closes significant support, while 2,270 and 2,280 points will act as resistance,” Manzhos said.

Alexei Korneyev, an analyst at investment company Finam, said that investors will track releases of Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMI) for Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, and the E.U. Germany is also to release retail sales data, while the American Petroleum Institute is to publish its preliminary data on the U.S. oil reserves.

End