Although just two of this week’s trading days are in the books, it is fair to say it has been wild one for Russia exchange traded funds.
On news of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Russian equities tumbled Monday, falling to levels not seen the darkest days of the Lehman Brothers crisis and the country’s 2008 conflict. Russian gas giant plunged 14% while Sberbank, one of Russia’s largest banks, slid 15%. Both stocks are significant holdings in ETFs such as the Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSEArca: RSX) and the iShares MSCI Russia Capped ETF (NYSEArca: ERUS). [Russia ETFs Slide Following Ukraine Invasion]
Those declines were, of course, good news for the Direxion Daily Russia Bear 3x Shares (NYSEArca: RUSS), but as Ukraine tensions ebbed Tuesday, the Direxion Daily Russia Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: RUSL) took the spotlight, soaring 10.6% on better than 12 times the average daily volume.
“Along with tensions in Ukraine, creation units and trading interest in Russia has increased,” said Direxion.
RUSS ended February as Direxion’s top-performing triple leveraged bearish ETF and saw modest creation activity last Friday, according to issuer data.