The Russian equities market monthly roundup
The Russian equities market displayed some signs of recovery in the last week of March, a budding positive trend that arose from the expectation of adoption of critically vital anticrisis measures and strategies at the London G20 Summit on April 2.
Thus, the RTS-1 Index, which tracks Russian blue-chips, surged by 3.5% on March 27 to close at 721.2 and the RTS-2 Index, which tracks the performances of the ‘second-tier’ equities, was also up, gaining 5.9% to peg at 509.4, while the MICEX Index tanked by 5.2% to close at 773.1. The forex rate volatilities remained unchecked at the end of the month, as the ruble gained 1.05% on the U.S. dollar to peg at R33.47/USD, compared to R33.82/USD registered on March 20. Though on m-o-m basis, equity market indices in March far surpassed those of the previous month, they are, however, still too low, compared to their peak values in the precrisis era.
Meanwhile, the market growth leaders at RTS were LUKoil (+7.0%) and Gazprom (+5.9%), while Krasesb (-39.4%), TambEnSb (-32.0%) and Chemist 36&6 (-18.6%) led the negative trends at MICEX. Consequently, trading volume at the RTS totaled R61.1bln ($1.8bln), while MICEX’s gross volume pegged at R89.64bln ($2.68bln). The highest turnover at the RTS was recorded by Sberbank ($6.32mln., +16.7%), the equity price growth leader was GAZ ($10.0/share, +73.9%), while the loss leader was Rosinter Restaurant Holding ($3.43/share, –11.9%).
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