Page 106 - RusRPTMay21

8.3 Stock market
8.3.1 Equity market dynamics
The Russian market performed well after troops were withdrawn from Ukraine’s border and tensions fell precipitously. The RTS index climbed from lows in the month of just over 1,400 to top 1,500 by the end of the month and is returning 8% YTD.
Almost all the gains have been made by banking stocks and within that TCS Group (TInkoff bank) has taken most of the inflows. As Russia’s only pure online bank it is both a financial stock that plays on the recovering consumer story, and a tech stock which are booming. The financial stocks were up over 30% YTD as of the end of the month.
Metals and mining stock also rose fast towards the end of the month and are up over 8% as of May 1. These have been enjoying the boom in commodity prices that is underway. Iron prices are at nine-year highs and copper prices topped $10,000 per ton for the first time ever on the day of the month.
The other sectors remain largely ignored by investors with very modest gains.
Russian equity markets saw a surprisingly modest outflow of $10mn from Russia dedicated funds on the week’s trading ending April 8 despite
106 RUSSIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com