Exchange traded funds that invest in Russia bounced Thursday along with local stocks and rising oil prices.
Russian stocks are supported by the reality that crude oil prices, Brent in particular, are taking the economic woes seen in Europe and the U.S. , in stride, reports Belinda Cao for Bloomberg.
“There are high degrees of correlations between all global equity markets at the moment. we have retail sales data in the U.S. If we have a figure better than expected, that would help the sentiment somewhat,” said Julian Rimmer, a trader of Russian shares at CF Global trading in London. [Russia is Goldmans New Favorite BRIC Country.]
Contracts for Rosneft and Gasprom, Russia’s largest oil and gas producers, were up 4.8% and 2.6%, respectively.
According to recent data from the S&P, Russia was the only one of four BRIC economies to report a gain in the first half of the year, up 4.9%, compared to India’s 9.3%, Brazil at 3.2% and China’s 0.8% losses. [Are BRIC Economies and ETFs Coming Back?]
Claire Peck, a client portfolio manager for emerging market equities at JPMorgan, says that she favors the consumer space, where companies have the potential to double over the next 3-5 years, a feat she does not see Gazprom Lukoil achieving, reports Maria Merricks on Investment Week.
Market Vectors Russia (NYSEArca: RSX) gained 5.1% over the past two days, and has about $2.2 billion in assets. The ETF allocates about 33% to oil and oil exploration and production.
Market Vectors Russia
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.