Stocks to edge up at opening on US-China talks, corporate reports

MOSCOW, Jul 24 (PRIME) – The Russian share market is likely to edge up at opening thanks to market optimism triggered by the resumption of U.S.-China trade talks, analysts said on Wednesday.

“The background before the Russian market opening is moderately positive,” said Anna Mulenkova, an analyst at Solid broker.

“Yesterday optimism returned to the international trading floors primarily due to the return of the U.S. and China to full-fledged negotiations instead of telephone discussions of the last few weeks.”

Additional support is rendered by an agreement between U.S. President Donald Trump and parliament on the debt ceiling for the next two years, which means the state will not default on its debt in the period. The market also welcomed robust U.S. corporate reports for the second quarter.

“Investors will focus on reports by Facebook and Apple today. If they are positive, the U.S. indexes will hit new all-time highs,” Mulenkova said.

Yekaterina Krylova at Promsvyazbank said the market will follow the U.S. Energy Ministry stocks report, including on gasoline. If the report is in line or higher than market expectations of falling gasoline stocks, the oil price will not trade below $64-66 per barrel.

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