“Ahead of his meetings this week in Washington and Moscow, French President Francois Hollande also urged US President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin to put aside their differences over Syria and Ukraine and work together against Islamic State,” Matys said. “This could potentially lead to easing Western Sanctions. Removing various restrictiosn imposed on Russia would definitely ease the burden on its economy and allowed GDP growth to regain better traction sooner.”
Additionally, Russian equities, notably oil stocks, were strengthening Monday on speculation that Saudi Arabia will cooperate with other producers to maintain stable oil prices, Bloomberg reports.
The energy sector makes up a large chunk of the Russia markets and ETF. For instance, RSX includes a 42.9% tilt toward the energy industry, with Gazprom 7.6% and Lukoil 7.6% among its top holdings. [Oil Prices Remain a Drag on the Russia ETF]
Market Vectors Russia ETF
For more information on Russia, visit our Russia category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.