THIS MESSAGE (MATERIAL) IS CREATED AND (OR) DISTRIBUTED BY A FOREIGN MASS MEDIA PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT AND (OR) A RUSSIAN LEGAL ENTITY PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT.
The collapse of the Russian stock market in the last month against the backdrop of a tense situation around Ukraine led to a sharp reduction in the value of ruble assets, in which more than a third of the National Wealth Fund was invested. This is evidenced by current exchange data and statistics published by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for 2021.
At the end of December 2021, the losses of the NWF amounted to 320.9 billion rubles. 257 billion are associated with a fall in the value of the shares of Sberbank and Aeroflot. Since the beginning of January of the new year, the shares of the state bank continued to fall, to a minimum since November 2020.
Over the past month and a half, the National Welfare Fund, according to experts, has lost about 750 billion rubles.
At the same time, real expenses from the Fund for 2021 amounted to about 370 million rubles. This money was used to purchase carriages for the metropolitan metro and the construction of an airport in Saratov.
We add that the Russian stock market is faced with the flight of investors from the assets against the backdrop of the possible introduction of new US sanctions. Washington has threatened to seriously tighten pressure if Russia invades Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Russian stock market collapsed on Tuesday under the onslaught of panic sales due to increased geopolitical risks around Russia. Thus, the Moscow Exchange and RTS indices in the fall tested the boundaries of 3300 and 1360 points, respectively. This rollback was a record one since March-April 2020.
According to the results of the main trades, the Moscow Exchange index amounted to 3328.94 points, the RTS index – 1367.45 points.
As Dmitry Babin, an expert on the stock market at BCS Mir Investments, told Interfax, pressure on risky assets was exerted by the growth in yields of US government bonds: the 10-year UST index updated a two-year high, reflecting fears of a faster increase in the Fed rate due to high inflation. The inflationary threat has intensified due to the rise in oil prices, which have renewed a 7-year high. At the same time, despite the positive from the commodity market, ruble assets showed weakness due to high geopolitical risks.
The negative news background that accompanies this situation scares away many investors from the Russian market, and above all foreign ones.
Anna Bodrova, a senior analyst at Alpari IAC, told Rosbalt that the Russian stock market experienced severe stress on Tuesday with the most powerful sell-off in two years.
“Now the Moscow Exchange index is at its lows since February last year and may well fall further, given the degree of emotionality that is observed now,” the expert pointed out. – The main market enemy now is geopolitics, in which absolutely nothing has been clarified. And this is what investors took as a bad signal and rushed in the opposite direction from risks.
According to Bodrova, now the main question is not even “when the sale ends”, but what will be the reason for a pause in the “bearish” attack.
Source: Rosbalt
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
