Russian stocks down as main trading session opens

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Russia’s stock market went down as the main trading session started on Friday as the MOEX Index slipped by 0.02% to 2,856.01 points, while the RTS Index fell by 0.02% to 1,137.04 points, according to trading data as of 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (07:00 a.m. GMT). The yuan exchange rate against the ruble gained 5.7 kopecks as trading opened compared with previous closing to 11.025 rubles. By 10:15 a.m. Moscow time (07:15 a.m. GMT), the MOEX had moved to the positive territory as it traded at 2,859.86 points (+0.11%), while the RTS was up by 0.11% at 1,138.57 points. The yuan exchange rate was up by 3.1 kopecks at 10.999 rubles. The MOEX Index with additional IMOEX2 ticker fell by 0.16% as morning trading session started reaching 2,852.09 points, according to trading data as of 7:00 a.m. Moscow time (4:00 a.m. GMT). "The MOEX Index may inertially try to rise in the first half of the day as investors are likely to expect a positive signal from the meeting of the Bank of Russia, the key event of the week," Head of Economics and Sector Research at Promsvyazbank Yevgeny Loktyukhov said. The regulator’s decision and its rhetoric will determine the completion of Friday’s trade and the market prospects in the near future, he believes. In its base case scenario Promsvyazbank expects the Central Bank to keep the key rate at 21%, due to which the ruble may continue its recovery trend, trying to set in the range of 10.8-11 rubles in the yuan pair. "If the regulator decides to ease the monetary policy this may put a moderate pressure on the ruble. However, we do not expect the main world currencies to notably deviate from the current levels in this case. Taking it into account, we expect the yuan/ruble pair to finish the week in the range of 10.8-11.3 rubles," Bogdan Zvarich, Head of Banking and Financial Market Analysis at Promsvyazbank, said. Alor Broker believes that the key rate decision will seriously influence the foreign exchange market as well. "The reduction of the rate is always negative for the national currency, though no flow into the dollar or the yuan is expected as the rate will remain very high in any case, whereas deposit interest will outplay inflation several times. This is why the ruble’s response to the results of the Central Bank’s board of directions may be strong, but relatively short-term," Alor Broker Alexey Antonov said.