Russian Equities Weekly 04-08/03/2019: Resilience to global tumble

Financials outperformed the other sectors for the second week running, mostly thanks to Credit Bank of Moscow. Its shares rose by 6.4% after Forbes included it as the top Russian lender in its list of the world’s best banks.

Power utilities lagged. Inter Rao, Rosseti, and RusHydro fell by the most: by 2.3%, 1.4%, and 1.2%, respectively.

	Week	YTD
RTS Total Return (TR) in USD	-0.7%	10.7%
MOEX index TR in RUB
Composite	-0.1%	4.8%
Blue Chip	-0.1%	5.6%
Small and mid-cap	-0.7%	3.4%
MOEX sector index TR in RUB
Financial Services	0.8%	8.4%
Metals & Mining	-0.3%	3.4%
Oil & Gas	-0.3%	0.6%
Consumer Goods	-0.6%	2.5%
Power Utilities	-0.9%	5.2%
FX
RUB/USD	-0.7%	4.3%
RUB/EUR	0.8%	6.3%

Data as of March 8^th, 2019
Sources: TKB Investment Partners (JSC) calculations; Bloomberg

Main Russian news

Inflation reached 5.2% YoY in February, up by 0.4% from January, Rosstat reported. Food inflation saw the largest rise, accelerating to 5.9% YoY, adding 0.8% from the previous month. Non-food and services inflation was 4.6% and 5.1% YoY, respectively. The Ministry of Economic Development expects inflation to peak at 5.5%–5.7% this spring and sees the overall inflation rate at 4.3% by the end of 2019. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) forecasts annual inflation of more than 5.5% this year, returning to 4% in the first half of 2020.

The CBR said foreign capital inflows grew in February. The reaction of non-residents on talk of possible sanctions was negligible and short-term, the regulator noted. The Russian securities market remained stable, with no significant volatility. Government bond (OFZ) purchases increased and returned to the level of Q1 2018. The share of foreign investment in OFZ rose by 1.1% to 25.5% last month. In eurobonds, it rose to 52.5%, adding 0.5% from January.