Capital inflows into Russia funds peak for the year
Funds investing in Russian assets raised $177.5 million in the week of March 3–9, the biggest weekly gain for more than a year.
At $177.5 million, the total net inflow of capital into funds investing in Russian shares for the week of March 3–9, 2016 was more than triple the previous week’s $49.5 million. According to Sberbank Investment Research, this was the best weekly performance since the signing of the Minsk agreements in February 2015, Interfax reported.
According to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research (EPFR), passive funds increased their investments in Russia by $156.2 million over the past week, while active funds poured another $21.3 million. Global GEM funds provided the biggest share of investment in Russian equities ($85.6 million). Russia-only funds increased investments by $79.4 million.
Sberbank Investment Research said in a research note that investor interest in Russia is fueled by a rebound in oil prices and an increase in confidence in emerging markets generally. Statistics show that the total net inflow of funds into emerging market funds amounted to $1.7 billion during the week of March 3–9, 2016, the biggest such increase since July 2015.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts reported earlier that foreign investors were generally prepared to increase investments in Russian assets provided oil prices stabilize. They added that whether the Western sanctions against Russia stay in place was a factor too.
The outflow of capital from emerging markets in 2015 was seven times that in 2014 ($735 billion versus $111 billion), reaching the maximum for the past 15 years, the Washington Institute of International Finance (IIF) said in a report. IIF analysts predicted that the outflow of capital from emerging markets would slow in 2016, but would still remain substantial at $448 billion.
Source: http://www.rbc.ru/finances (Russian)
