How will markets open on August 18?

— The meeting between Zelensky and Trump in Washington on Monday is now coming to the forefront, because over the last two days we have seen statements and headlines in the media on the topic that the trilateral format will depend on this meeting in the future. I think that some optimism that was already on the market before the meeting, on Thursday and Friday, was confirmed. I think that we will see an opening with a slight increase, probably within a percent, maybe one and a half, and then the market will actively follow the geopolitical news feed. If we talk about the ruble exchange rate, then here we can probably expect a slight weakening on expectations of a possible easing of sanctions. The exchange rate is largely dictated by the ratio of the inflow and outflow of currency from the country, and sanctions directly affect this. If we manage to agree and we hear specific dates and measures for easing sanctions next week, the ruble will definitely weaken. On expectations of this, a slight weakening is possible on Monday - somewhere in the region of 80-80.5, but no more, because the market needs documentary evidence that the sanctions regime can be relaxed. And this will depend, as you correctly said, on the meeting of Zelensky and Trump and a possible trilateral meeting, if it takes place.

— You have roughly outlined the range of the dollar. And the euro?

— Here, the range is absolutely the same, since no one is thinking about lifting the sanctions of the EU countries. While Trump says that we have many points of contact, the EU is preparing the 19th package. I think that here we will see approximately the same ranges — around 92-93.

— How do you think oil prices will go?

— There are no changes here yet, because they are primarily determined by OPEC+ production quotas. Therefore, until we hear new statements from OPEC+ members about possible changes in quotas, we should not expect a strong change in oil prices. Urals — range 62-64. I think that we can see approximately this range this week.

— There was a good dialogue at the summit on Friday, the leaders of both countries noted. But since the market did not see any breakthrough stories, there was some fixation on Saturday trading. Now everyone will watch and wait to see if there is something that can bring the positions of the parties closer together. In fact, geopolitics, I believe, has a minimal impact on exchange rates now — on the ruble exchange rates against the dollar, euro, and yuan. Therefore, we will see a value of around 80 rubles per dollar, and this will remain the same at the beginning of the week. And then we will see how the market will predict the rate value: will there be an exit from the ruble to other currencies. I think these will be fluctuations of 79.5-81.5, if we are talking about the ruble - dollar. If we are talking about the yuan, then it will probably be at levels of 11-11.30.

— At the same time, it is known that the EU is apparently preparing the 19th package of sanctions.

— But without American sanctions, and Donald Trump has already said that he is not considering new sanctions for now, so all these packages from the Europeans are of little significance for the Russian market. This is a clarification of some stories, and not something global. The last thing we saw and what affected the quotes, when they went down a little, was that OPEC would increase production. Accordingly, we understand: oil is under pressure both from OPEC and from the problems of the global economy. The situation in the Chinese economy is not the best, Trump's tariff wars are also not having a positive effect. Therefore, by and large, oil is still under pressure. We'll see what happens next.