The Russian equity market ended in the black last week, rising by 0.2% in US dollar terms, but underperformed its peers: the MSCI EM index rose by 0.5% and MSCI World index gained 0.3% in US dollar terms.
The consumer goods sector outperformed the market mainly thanks to Magnit and X5 Retail Group, whose shares benefited from positive financial results for the first quarter of 2019.
The oil and gas sector underperformed last week. The worst performers were Rosneft and Lukoil, whose share prices fell by 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively, despite the absence of any significant news on the companies.
Main Russian news
The Druzhba pipeline started transporting decontaminated Russian oil after a two-week shutdown resulting from chloride contamination that could have damaged the refinery equipment. The uncontaminated oil reached Belarus on 2 May, from where it will be transported onwards to Ukraine and Poland.
The Druzhba pipeline is a key route for delivering Russian oil to Europe. While the refinery was being decontaminated, its capacity was reduced by more than 30%, and it may take several months before the pipeline is back to full-scale operation. Until then, Russia has the alternative means of transporting oil by railway and sea.
To watch…
Rosstat is due to publish macroeconomic indicators for April 2019
Author: Marina Tsutskiridze, Junior Investment Specialist
Sources: Rosstat, Vedomosti, Bloomberg, TKB Investment Partners (JSC); May2019