Page 11 - bneMag bne_December 2020_20201201

bne December 2020 Companies & Markets I 11
from one of the handful of vaccines which have undergone widespread testing among volunteers.
Russian authorities also announced that its Sputnik V vaccine was also 90% effective. It was one of the first vaccines to appear, but the public remain very sceptical about its effectiveness.
Russia’s biggest winners were stocks which have suffered heavily this year amid unprecedented shutdowns of the global economy – airlines and oil companies.
The metals and mining stocks were doing well before the crises struck in February and are returning a positive 7% YTD, gaining 2ppt during November 9 trading. The consumer goods sector also gained about the same and is now returning a positive 6% YTD.
The rest of the sectors are still underwater from where they stood at the end of February, but most of them gained 2-3ppt on the day. Most noticeably the oil & gas sector was lifted 8ppt from a -42% lost YTD to end the day down at -36%. However, that is still down from the roughly 33% loss the sector was showing
a month ago, and investors remain very sceptical of the sector.
The best performer of the day was Aeroflot, which added almost 8% on the day as of 4pm Moscow-time, while energy companies Lukoil, Tatneft and Novatek claimed the next three spots on the leader board.
Still, Russian gains lagged the market increases across Europe, where the London benchmark FTSE 100 was up by more
than 5% and the Eurostoxx 50, which tracks the 50 largest companies based in the Eurozone, added more than 6%, reports the Moscow Times.
Russia 2020 stocks by sector weekly performance YTD returns %
Russia sectors performance % YTD
Source: MOEX, BCS GM
Markets have also been lifted by Joe Biden’s victory in the US elections. While Biden is anticipated to be tough on Russia and introduce more sanctions, those fears are offset by the return to more predictable “normal” politics that will allow better forecasting. Also a key change will be that Biden is expected to abandon US President Donald Trump’s policy of starting trade wars, which is very damaging not only for the balance of payments, but has also proved a big disincentive to foreign investors, who increasingly invested in the US
as a hedge against getting caught up in a trade war. That
is expected to change now, with US capital going overseas again under Biden in the hunt for better returns, according to Charlie Robinson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital.
Source: BCS GM
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