RSXJ, the Russia small-cap ETF, has a fair amount of exposure to the domestic economy as utilities, consumer staples and real estate stocks combine for almost 42% of that ETF’s lineup. As is usually the case, Russian stocks are attractively valued relative to broader emerging markets benchmarks.
Earlier this month, the VanEck team pointed out that despite the recent jump in Russia’s markets, Russian stocks remain relatively attractive. Specifically, RSX is trading at a 7.83 price-to-earnings ratio and a 0.76 price-to-book
“In an uncertain world of Brexit, Trump, Italian, French and German elections we find Russia well placed within emerging markets. Provided [the price of]oil holds at current levels, we see Russia’s economic rebound in 2017 as well secured, with the potential for growth to exceed consensus forecasts … We see Russia as resilient to Fed rate hikes given the current account surplus and given the challenges Russian companies have had in accessing international funding over the past three years,” according to the Renaissance note seen in Barron’s.