The Russian equities market monthly roundup
The seriously battered Russian equity market showed faltering signs of life in mid-February, as its two major bourses — RTS and MICEX — exhibited divergent dynamic trends. Thus, the RTS-1 Index, which tracks the blue-chips, surged by 19.83% on Feb. 16 to close at 624.21, and the RTS-2 Index, which tracks the ‘second-tier’ equities, was also up, gaining 3.27% to peg at 448.06, while the MICEX Index went down by 2.49% to close at 630.42. These conflicting trends are an unambiguous indication of the complete uncertainty and lack of confidence among investors in the collective effects being adopted globally to revive both the national and world economies.
Leading the budding positive trends at RTS were oil majors: LUKoil (+16.12), Surgutneftegaz (+15.57) and Rosneft (+12.54), while VEK (-43.31) led the negative trends at MICEX. Besides, forex rate volatilities also maintained its negative dynamism as the Russian ruble gained 4.16% on the U.S. dollar to peg at R34.8/USD, compared to R36.31/USD registered at the beginning of the month. Consequently, trading volume at the RTS totaled R54.7.1bln (or $1.5bln), while that of MICEX pegged at R64.48bln ($1.9bln). The highest turnover at the RTS was recorded by Sberbank ($21.53mln., +40.22, within a wk), the growth leader was Mechel Group ($5.8/share, +52.63), while the loss leader was the PIK Group ($0.63/share, –3.76).
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